AT&T to Buy Time Warner for $85.4 Billion

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by JozefK, Oct 23, 2016.

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  1. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dixie
    AT&T Reaches Deal to Buy Time Warner for $85.4 Billion »

    The combined business would pair the carrier’s millions of wireless and pay-television subscribers with Time Warner’s deep media lineup, which includes networks such as CNN, TNT, the prized HBO channel and Warner Bros. film and TV studio [and TCM!]. It furthers AT&T’s bet that television and video can drive growth into a stalled wireless market.

    “Premium content always wins. It has been true on the big screen, the TV screen and now it’s proving true on the mobile screen,” Mr. Stephenson, 56 years old, said in a release.

    The companies said they aim to be the first U.S. wireless company to compete nationwide with cable companies by providing an online-video bundle akin to a traditional pay-television package. “It will disrupt the traditional entertainment model and push the boundaries on mobile content availability for the benefit of customers,” the companies said.​
     
  2. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    Makes my kinda happy that WMG is a separate entity now!
     
  3. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
    UUGGGHHHH....you can be sure of one thing...Prices will go up.
     
  4. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    OR.....
    AT&T will screw themselves, like AOL did!
    ...hope,hope....
     
  5. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    The only reason a company drops $85B is because they know they'll be able to bilk consumers out of at least twice that much through rate hikes.
     
  6. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    Gosh I hope not. I have a lot of shares of both AT&T and TWC. Should be interesting.
     
  7. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
    Doug, usually, when a merger like this happens, one goes up and one goes down.
     
  8. TeacFan

    TeacFan Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Arcadia, Ca.
    Hope we are through with that wonky Time Warner moniker.
     
  9. nopedals

    nopedals Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia SC
    The only choices for high speed Internet in my town are att and twc. I get excellent service from att because if I don't they know that I will switch to twc. Rate hikes are only going to be part of it.
     
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  10. showtaper

    showtaper Concert Hoarding Bastard

    Nope, they will take one smaller subsidiary company, saddle it with all their debt and cut it loose.
    In a year or so, that company will declare bankruptcy and their debt will magically go away. Then
    they'll get really get busy screwing the general public like the giant monopoly they've become.....
     
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  11. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I'm glad I put all my stocks in The Pet Rock. Smart move. :)
     
  12. Dave Garrett

    Dave Garrett Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    Time Warner Cable (recently renamed Spectrum) and the Time Inc. magazine division were previously spun off from the parent company as separate entities, so the proposed merger does not include either of them. What AT&T will be getting are the cable networks/channels and the Warner studio.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2016
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  13. soundboy

    soundboy Senior Member

    Not going to happen if the Feds or enough state regulatory agencies say "No!"

    Example: Comcast's proposed acquisition of TWC.
     
  14. townsend

    townsend Senior Member

    Location:
    Ridgway, CO
    That's why they call it vulture capitalism . . .
     
    vince likes this.
  15. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    I had no idea that TW had sold off AOL!
    I'm trying to remember what year they sold off the record label....
     
  16. townsend

    townsend Senior Member

    Location:
    Ridgway, CO
    Doug, I've got some shares of AT&T as well. I inherited them when my father passed away in 1992 and over several decades, they underwent several name changes: Southwestern Bell > SBC > AT&T.

    I have lost a good deal by hanging onto them (compared to what they were once worth), but as you know, they do pay a nice dividend. It's bizarre that dividends are only taxed at 15%, isn't it?

    Scott
     
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  17. cathandler

    cathandler Senior Member

    Location:
    maine
    It's just weird how random opposition to mergers is. The Comcast-TWC merger drew howls of protest and was shot down, yet the TWC-Charter merger sailed through with nary a whimper. Likewise, the AT&T-Time Warner merger is attracting immediate opposition, yet the Comcast-NBCUniversal was approved with only minor conditions attached.
     
  18. Juan Matus

    Juan Matus Reformed Audiophile

  19. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    Headlines on these types of transactions should say "A wants to by B". Not as provocative, but more accurate.
     
  20. Mirrorblade.1

    Mirrorblade.1 Forum Resident

    So much Greed...
     
  21. Dude111

    Dude111 An Awesome Dude

    Location:
    US
    I dont undersrand,how can AT&T buy them??

    CHARTER ALREADY DID!!!!!!!!!!
     
  22. cathandler

    cathandler Senior Member

    Location:
    maine
    Charter bought Time Warner CABLE, which was spun off from Time Warner in 2009. I wonder if this confusion is the source of a lot of opposition to the merger, as Charter has only begun the transition from Time Warner Cable to Spectrum.
     
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  23. That's an obscene amount of money to spend on any company. Every one else will pay for it.
     
    Dude111 and Ghostworld like this.
  24. MikeyH

    MikeyH Stamper King

    Location:
    Berkeley, CA
    AT&T just started on me. My 'all inclusive' $45 'go' prepay just had the mandated E911 fee unbundled as an additional charge. So from being $45 net it's now $51.13!

    ATT must have been paying this before, you can't get away from it. So ATT just pocketed an extra $6.13 per month from all of us trying to keep the bills down.

    It won't take them long to rack up those billions like this.
     
  25. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson today defended his company's proposed acquisition of Time Warner, saying that critics who claim the merger will raise prices are "uninformed." As proof, he said the AT&T-owned DirecTV will soon launch a $35-per-month streaming service called DirecTV Now.
     
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