WOAH! AT&T bought Time Warner for $80 BILLION

[Arri]

2 hours ago, Stefan1024 said:

Yes it looks like, but that's really NOT how it should be.

Ouer financial system is just out of controll. How long does it take until they make 80 billion profit? 250 years?

The price of something is only worth what the buyer is willing to pay for. If AT&T believes Time Warner is worth $80 billion dollars, then it is worth $80 billion dollars. 

[Jbarhomie]

So, to clarify, it's Time Warner the entertainment company and not Time Warner Cable right?

[patrickjp93]

1 hour ago, Jbarhomie said:

So, to clarify, it's Time Warner the entertainment company and not Time Warner Cable right?

Yes

[Scruffy90]

This is to lock down distribution and licensing rights for a bunch of shows under TW

[Delicieuxz]

AT&T has agreed to buy Time Warner, but hasn't actually bought it, yet.

 

Donald Trump has something to say about the deal:

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/trump-outlines-what-his-first-100-days-in-office-would-look-like/article32484228/

Quote

And he added a new threat to his repeated castigation of U.S. media corporations, which he says cover his campaign unfairly to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“They’re trying desperately to suppress my vote and the voice of the American people,” Trump, who often rails against media outlets and journalists covering his events, told supporters in his speech. Trump has not provided evidence for his assertion that the election would be rigged.

 

“As an example of the power structure I’m fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” Trump said.

 

Telecommunications company AT&T Inc has agreed in principle to buy Time Warner Inc, one of the country’s largest film and television companies, for about $85-billion and an announcement could be made as early as Saturday.

 

Trump also said he would look at “breaking” up the acquisition by Comcast Corp of the media company NBC Universal in 2013.

“Deals like this destroy democracy,” he said in explaining his apparent deviation from the traditional Republican position that seeks to minimize the taxation and regulation of American companies.

 

Amazon.com Inc, the online retailer, should also be paying “massive taxes,” Trump said, reminding voters that Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post, a newspaper whose coverage Trump dislikes.

 

[themctipers]

the monopoly continues to grow in 'murica

[Suika]

I have this sickly feeling that AT&T U-Verse/DirecTV will be getting quite a few exclusive channels...

[Notional]

I thought it was going to merge with Comcast? Will this result in competition? *gasp*

5 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

If WhatsApp purchase taught us anything, it's that the price is not the real indicator of how much something is worth in reality, it's just how much someone is ready to pay for it. 

How much someone is ready to pay for something, IS how much it's worth, løl. Microeconomics 101.

[2FA]

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

Oh so they just eliminated one of their only competitors.

Guess how they they gonna make the 80 billion back?

You.

 

But everyone's fine with it. Look out at the streets, everything's fine.

Time Warner the entertainment company, not Time Warner Cable. Two completely separate companies.

[Centurius]

4 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Just the fact that they can even afford to pay out that much money, goes to show how much they overcharge their customers and don't give a damn about upgrading their network. (Not to mention abusing government subsidies by getting paid and not actually doing the job/doing the bare minimum)

That's not really how corporate take-overs like this work. I'd be surprised if this came directly out of their liquidity in any significant amount, usually companies get loans from banks and try to get money from investors to finance these kinds of takeovers, which they can then slowly pay back over time.

[Derangel]

Even if the price is agreed upon by both companies it will be a looooong time before the buyout actually happens. It will need to go through several approval processes. The FTC will have to approve it, the DOJ will have to approve it, New York (where Time Warner and AT&T are based out of) will have to approve it, and there might even be other entities or states that will need to approve it as well. IF ATT gets the go ahead it won't be until this time next year, at the earliest, that anything even starts going through. It took Comcast nearly a year to get approval to buy Universal, same with AT&T buying DirectTV, and Charter's purchase of Time Warner Cable and Brighthouse also took a long time. Comcast's failed attempt to but TWC even took like a year before it got denied.

[RypeDub]

If AT&T only offered faster in-home and wireless/mobile network speeds: I'd switch.

 

1 box for up to 5 room, 10 shows recorded at the same time, satellite tellivision and now a billion channels.

 

WAYYYY better than Xfinity TV

 

But Internet is more important to me than TV, so I'll be with Comcast & Verizon until AT&T can finally deliver more speed.

 

Hell, if the price is right, I'll even pay for the in-home security as well. I'll let AT&T control my digital life to the max!

 

Just offer more internet plz

[JefferyD90]

8 hours ago, zMeul said:

I don't give a fuck who bought who as long as they don't fuck with HBO

It's AT&T, I can PROMISE you that HBO is going to be fucked with 100%...

[Mikedin]

On October 20, 2016 at 6:17 PM, Katsunaka said:

How's TW going to merge, when they've been bought by Charter, who will be known as Spectrum.

 

https://www.timewarnercable.com/en/support/faqs/our-company/charter-twc-merger/twc-charter-merger-information.html

Yep I have time warner and when I get my bill it's now called spectrum I believe it happened at least 2-3 months back

[Bouzoo]

5 hours ago, Notional said:

I thought it was going to merge with Comcast? Will this result in competition? *gasp*

How much someone is ready to pay for something, IS how much it's worth, løl. Microeconomics 101.

I was just waiting for someone to respond with that. You know what I mean. 

[Liltrekkie]

13 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Time Warner purchased Charter Communications and merged it with their services.

AT&T purchased the entirety of Time Warner, which includes its cable service, CNN, HBO, etc.

 

I'd assume this also affects Warner Bros. and all of its subsidiaries.

 

lolwut no.

 

CHARTER bought Time Warner CABLE, which was a sub company of Timer Warner INC. THEY ARE/WERE TWO DIFFERENT COMPANIES.

 

at&t gets Time Warner inc, Charter gets Time Warner Cable. 

 

Time warner did NOT buy out charter, contrary to what you've said.

[OptimisticRealist]

17 hours ago, Stefan1024 said:

Yes it looks like, but that's really NOT how it should be.

Ouer financial system is just out of controll. How long does it take until they make 80 billion profit? 250 years?

That's the buyers problem. It actually IS how it is supoosed to be.

 

You are SUPPOSED to sell at the price that people WANT to buy it.

[Goodman2265]

16 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Just the fact that they can even afford to pay out that much money, goes to show how much they overcharge their customers and don't give a damn about upgrading their network. (Not to mention abusing government subsidies by getting paid and not actually doing the job/doing the bare minimum)

 

17 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Time Warner purchased Charter Communications and merged it with their services.

AT&T purchased the entirety of Time Warner, which includes its cable service, CNN, HBO, etc.

 

I'd assume this also affects Warner Bros. and all of its subsidiaries.

Time to clear this up for y'all. Time Warner family here.

 

Charter bought TWC. They bought the Internet, TV, and Phone partition.

 

AT&T bought the media Division like record labels and production shit.

[Tech_Dreamer]

21 hours ago, FloRolf said:

How the hell is time Warner worth 80 freaking billion? 

That's $80,000,000,000.00

Holy fucking shit. 

 

Bayer paid less for Monsanto and that was a massive deal. 

i think most of it is in stock value which varies a lot depending on the time

[dditty]

11 hours ago, JefferyD90 said:

It's AT&T, I can PROMISE you that HBO is going to be fucked with 100%...

How come more people aren't discussing that DirecTV now owns HBO? That seems to me to be the more likely link in the chain for fucking with HBO. 

[JefferyD90]

1 hour ago, dditty said:

How come more people aren't discussing that DirecTV now owns HBO? That seems to me to be the more likely link in the chain for fucking with HBO. 

Because DirecTV doesn't own HBO... instead, ATT own BOTH of them...  ATT is probably the most cynical and evil company on the face of the planet today.

[Stefan1024]

19 hours ago, Arri said:

The price of something is only worth what the buyer is willing to pay for. If AT&T believes Time Warner is worth $80 billion dollars, then it is worth $80 billion dollars. 

 

4 hours ago, OptimisticRealist said:

That's the buyers problem. It actually IS how it is supoosed to be.

 

You are SUPPOSED to sell at the price that people WANT to buy it.

 

Oh from an economics theroy point of view I totally get it. The stuff is worth whatever the people are willing to pay for.

But they pay over 100 billions if you include the debts, what is >10k$ for every single person on earth. They just value this stuff way to high. Giving a fiew individuals the power to shift so much money / recourses alway bothered me.

When they are successful they will have the porfit for theier own, but when the fail the every singe employee and ofthe also the taxpayers have to compensate.

[Deletist_Jerk]

AT&T is like "Only $200 billion in debt...hmmm, no big deal. Put it on my credit card."

 

I wonder how much of that money came from government subsidies. 

 

[captain_to_fire]

Quote

Who will win the "Game of Thrones"? It may just be AT&T.

The massively popular show, the HBO channel it runs on and a host of other entertainment properties including CNN, Cartoon Network and movie studios Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema -- all part of Time Warner -- will join the telecommunications giant as part of a $85.4 billion deal that ranks among the biggest acquisitions of all time.

AT&T confirmed it would acquire Time Warner in a half-stock, half-cash deal that values its shares at $107.50 apiece. The companies said they expect the transaction, which was buzzed about for the last three days, to be completed by the end of 2017.

On Friday, Time Warner's shares closed at $89.48 each, while AT&T's closed at $37.49.

The deal marks the next step in an audacious plan by AT&T to control several key aspects of your life. With Time Warner in the fold, AT&T could theoretically serve you wireless and home internet service through its traditional business, deliver satellite TV via DirecTV and produce many of the television shows and films you watch.

"We can deliver a very different experience for our customers," AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in a conference call with reporters.

For Time Warner, the deal answers the pressures that media companies have felt to consolidate. Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox had previously sought to buy Time Warner two years ago. CEO Jeff Bewkes said on the same call that AT&T gives his business extra heft to change how video is distributed.

"This will supercharge our creative abilities," he said.

But consumer advocates warn that the deal could lead to higher prices down the line. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said the proposed deal raises "immediate flags" about consolidation in the market.

The combination of a service provider and a media company brings to mind Comcast's acquisition of a controlling stake in NBC Universal in 2011 (it completed the takeover two years later). Comcast may have been in mind when these two companies started talking.

Quote

A hit to your wallet?

Not everyone is enamored with the deal. Critics were out early, issuing statements before the official word arrived. Most expressed concern about the further concentration of power in the media business, with AT&T both controlling the production and distribution of entertainment.

"As the (Federal Communications Commission) has found in past mergers, combining valuable content with pay-TV distribution causes harm to consumers and competition in the pay-TV market," Matthew Polka, CEO of the American Cable Association, said in a statement Saturday.

Others warned that these types of deals could have a real impact on your cable bill.

"Any time you hear media executives talking about synergies, throwing around the business-babble that always accompanies these rumors, you know it's time to grab your wallet and hang on tight," said Matt Wood, policy director for consumer advocacy group Free Press.

AT&T will have a lot to juggle. Beyond DirecTV and Time Warner, the company has invested more than $4 billion combined to buy Nextel Mexico and Iusacell to expand its wireless service south of the border.

It's also unclear whether regulators will like the deal. One of AT&T's biggest flops was the failed takeover of rival T-Mobile, which hit a wall with regulators. Republican nominee Donald Trump said Saturday that he would kill the AT&T-Time Warner merger if he were president.

Stephenson dismissed any concern that the deal would fall through, noting "this is not the T-Mobile deal."

"No competitor will be removed from the marketplace with this deal," he said on a call, noting that two similar companies aren't combining.

The US government also heavily scrutinized the Comcast-NBC Universal merger, but it ultimately approved that deal.

AT&T can only hope regulators give it the same nod.

First published October 22, 4:51 p.m. PT.
Update, 5:53 p.m.:Adds comments from the CEOs of AT&T and Time Warner.

Article from CNET: https://www.cnet.com/news/at-t-buys-time-warner-in-media-shaking-85-4b-deal/

 

Will it make TWC (Time Warner Cable) better then? I hope my HBO Go subscription won't be more expensive after the merger.

[aisle9]

RIP Net Neurality

 

Anyone checked to see where AT&T is on Clinton's donor list lately?