AT&T on Saturday confirmed they are acquiring Time Warner in a deal worth an equity value of $85.4 billion and a total transaction value of $108.7 billion, including Time Warner’s net debt.
AT&T:
Time Warner is a global leader in media and entertainment with a great portfolio of content creation and aggregation, plus iconic brands across video programming and TV/film production. Each of Time Warner’s three divisions is an industry leader: HBO, which consists of domestic premium pay television and streaming services (HBO Now, HBO Go), as well as international premium & basic pay television and streaming services; Warner Bros. Entertainment, which consists of television, feature film, home video and videogame production and distribution. Warner Bros. film franchises include Harry Potter & DC Comics, and its produced TV series include Big Bang Theory and Gotham; Turner consists of U.S. and international basic cable networks, including TNT, TBS, CNN and Cartoon Network/Adult Swim. Also, Turner has the rights to the NBA, March Madness and MLB. Time Warner also has invested in OTT and digital media properties such as Hulu, Bleacher Report, CNN.com and Fandango.
The deal does not include Time Warner Cable, which is a separate entity and was acquired earlier this year by Charter Spectrum.
The merger is subject to approval by Time Warner Inc. shareholders, and is also subject to review by the United States Department of Justice. The deal is unlikely to actually close until year end 2017. The government will likely examine the merger closely, due to concerns about monopolistic control over media and content companies.
Time Warner was viewed as the last big target for this type of acquisition, as other companies of its kind are either too big to be easily swallowed, like Disney and its family of companies and networks, or are family-owned, like CBS and Viacom.
In related news, The New York Post reports CBS and Viacom may get back together:
Viacom shareholders believe they’ll have a merger agreement with CBS by Thanksgiving, sources told The Post.
