U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T has committed to a deal to acquire Time Warner for a valued deal of more than $85 billion dollars, including debt.
The deal details was announced on Saturday evening, after the two companies’ boards approve the deal. If approved, AT&T would have control over properties like Warner Bros., Turner Broadcasting (CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network, etc.), and HBO.
BREAKING: AT&T formally announces it will acquire Time Warner Inc for $107.50 per share https://t.co/yspY3dN0jW
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) October 22, 2016
The deal must be approved by U.S. regulators including the FCC before it becomes official. This could become contentious because of Time Warner’s ownership of Atlanta’s WPCH-TV (formerly known as superstation WTBS TV), an independent station operated by the Meredith Corporation under a local marketing agreement. Additionally, Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump stated during a rally Saturday that the deal wouldn’t be approved in his administration.
Time Warner has already gone through one merger in the past. That’s when America Online (AOL) merged with the media conglomerate in 2000, causing lots of financial losses to the created media giant. In 2009, Time Warner decided to spun off America Online, which would eventually ended up as part of Verizon Wireless. Also, Time Warner spun off both, their music empire known as Warner Music Group and their Cable TV division known as Time Warner Cable, which is now owned by Charter Cable.
Among the created properties in Time Warner’s portfolio, include Harry Potter, DC Comics superheroes like Batman and Superman, Game of Thrones, Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo and many others. Time Warner owns part of The CW Television Network with CBS Television Group. It also owns international broadcasters ‘Chilevision’ (Chile) and ‘Infinito’ (Argentina).
Time Warner does license content and characters outside their media based properties, like Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resorts (Comcast NBC-Universal owned) and the Looney Tunes characters at Six Flags and Warner Bros Movie theme parks (Premiere Parks) to name a few.
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What that $80 billion AT&T-Time Warner deal means for net neutrality and you https://t.co/VFsTTXzXzh
— Mashable (@mashable) October 22, 2016
AT&T agrees to buy Time Warner for $80bn as Trump slams deal https://t.co/hkxPKdoDNr
— Guardian news (@guardiannews) October 22, 2016