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AT&T Businesses Communications United States

AT&T Completes $85 Billion Time Warner Acquisition (axios.com) 87

AT&T on Thursday evening said that it has completed its $85 billion purchase of Time Warner, just two days after a judge ruled that the deal, originally announced two years ago, could proceed over objections from U.S. antitrust regulators. From a report: The Department of Justice did not file for an emergency stay of the judge's ruling, per the judge's request, but still reserves the right to appeal. In a statement, Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive of AT&T said moving forward his company will bring a fresh approach to how the media and entertainment industry works for consumers, content creators, distributors and advertisers. "The content and creative talent at Warner Bros., HBO and Turner are first-rate. Combine all that with AT&T's strengths in direct-to-consumer distribution, and we offer customers a differentiated, high-quality, mobile-first entertainment experience," he said.
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AT&T Completes $85 Billion Time Warner Acquisition

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  • how long to get HBO 4K live on directv?

    • by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Thursday June 14, 2018 @11:03PM (#56788004)
      How fast can you instal Plex on a Pi and learn how to use bittorrent?
    • by antdude ( 79039 )

      And others like cable TV services?

  • by grep -v '.*' * ( 780312 ) on Thursday June 14, 2018 @07:34PM (#56787324)
    Or was I not paying attention? I sure wish they could fix OTHER important things as fast.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • in the US anyway.

      Net neutrality gone. Check.
      Pipe companies being TV megachannels. Check.
      Only thing that's left is to squeeze the upstart internet content providers (Youtube, Netflix) out.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      This merger was being worked on for a couple of years (it was started in the Obama years back in 2016 - maybe even quietly 2015: these things take a while to negotiate) and the only thing stopping it was regulatory approval. And over the past year, AT&T was fighting the US Justice Department over the merger.

      When they got approval from the George W. Bush appointed Federal Judge, it was just a matter of finalizing everything.

      Actually as far as mergers goes, this was a long one.

  • by Etcetera ( 14711 ) on Thursday June 14, 2018 @07:44PM (#56787376) Homepage

    ... Got the T-shirt:
    https://slashdot.org/story/00/01/10/0816250/aol-and-time-warner-confirm-merger-plans [slashdot.org]

    Also, these Slashdot pull quotes in the Washington Post are awesome:

    In one virtual gathering place for technology buffs yesterday--the Slashdot Web site--Managing Editor Robin Miller kicked off a rollicking debate over the merger with this screed: "Now you'll be able to get all your Internet needs, from connectivity to content to shopping, delivered by a single experienced company. No more need to deal with Web sites that stray from the party line, take risks . . . or any of that other messy old-fashioned 'Internet as anarchy' stuff.

    "To get online in the future, all you'll need to do is plug in your computer, turn off your brain, and enjoy!"

    If nothing else, AOL Time Warner will toil in a media environment that's undergoing a whirlwind evolution. No one can say with any certainty, for example, whether in a few years most consumers will go onto the Internet from their televisions, or whether tomorrow's TV viewers will watch their favorite shows on their computer screens.

    What's likely, however, is that high-speed Internet service will soon become a mass-market phenomenon. Access to the Internet via fatter cable lines is about 100 times faster than traditional phone and modem connections. And control over broadband is considered pivotal to the health of both companies, said Mark Berman, an analyst at Mediaweek.com, an online trade publication.

    - https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/01/11/aol-to-acquire-time-warner-in-record-183-billion-merger/92bdb300-0f48-4dfd-ae7e-38d9aec6417a/?utm_term=.d94ff7b431e7 [washingtonpost.com]

  • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Thursday June 14, 2018 @07:51PM (#56787412)
    I suspect that this will probably work out about as well as the AOL / Time Warner merger back around 2000. A lot of hullabaloo in the press and middle management from both sides sabotaging the supposed "synergistic experience" that the merger is designed to create over fear of becoming redundant as a result. You'll have executives who might know a fair bit about one field trying to make business decisions in another where they're no more knowledgeable than the average person off the street, and the results are all too predictable.
  • Please now that you have achieved global dominance now force DirecTV to fully support their own TiVo product. This Genie shit is shit. FFS you're still paying for them to air TiVo commercials that imply it's fully supported.

    • They did a software update to my Genie about a month ago. Now everything is like molasses. Sometimes it's 4-5 seconds between when you press a button on the remote control and when the thing responds. It's absolutely ridiculous and borderline unusable. It wasn't that great before but if I had a way to roll it back, I sure would.
    • by tsa ( 15680 )

      Global dominance?

  • Up Next (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mentil ( 1748130 ) on Thursday June 14, 2018 @08:34PM (#56787552)

    As promised, now that the AT&T/Time Warner deal was judge-approved, expect the Sprint/T-mobile deal to move forward. And for Fox to be bought by Disney or Comcast.
    By the time we have flying cars, there'll just be 3 conglomerates that one can work for, Shadowrun-style.

    • Re:Up Next (Score:5, Insightful)

      by youngone ( 975102 ) on Thursday June 14, 2018 @09:48PM (#56787788)

      By the time we have flying cars, there'll just be 3 conglomerates that one can work for, Shadowrun-style.

      That's the end goal of capitalism, unless it is regulated.
      Unfortuntely the corporations own those who appoint the regulators, so guess what is going to happen?
      You could view it as a good thing though, you won't need to go through all the worry and stress of having to choose. There will be one provider of any goods or services you may want.

      That's capitalism at it's most efficient right there.

    • by ranton ( 36917 )

      As promised, now that the AT&T/Time Warner deal was judge-approved, expect the Sprint/T-mobile deal to move forward. And for Fox to be bought by Disney or Comcast.

      While this ruling does make a Fox/Comcast deal more likely (and the bid has already been made), it has little to do with the Sprint/T-mobile merger. The AT&T / Time Warner merger was a vertical merger, while the Sprint/T-mobile deal would be a horizontal one. The text of the ruling seems to say the deal was allowed at least in large part because they were not direct competitors. The Sprint / T-mobile merger may still happen, but this ruling doesn't give much insight into it.

    • Also considering the politically situation we are really close to Idiocracy being a documentary.

      All we need now is for Fuddruckers to begin the name changes.

  • winning. I hear they at least tried to block it, but this is what you get with the best people. Well, that and 30-40 years of the judiciary being staffed by right wingers. Hell, Obama himself was pretty right wing in most respects. He'd be a Republican if Clinton hadn't shifted the Overton window so far to the right.
  • Now I get 1,000 channels I don't want for $109.95 instead of 500 I don't want for $99.95. WhattaBaghin!

  • With high-speed internet, who needs a cable box? Just stream everything.

    Seems to me everybody is cutting the cable. I did so myself years ago. $150 a month *and* watch commercials? No thanks. Roku, Plex, and a digital antenna, and that's all I need.

    How is Time-Warner a bargain at $85 billion when nobody wants to watch commercials, or pay for cable?

  • I have DirecTV Now. It used to authenticate for the various Turner channel websites, apps and Roku channel. Not long ago it stopped being an option to login to them with my DTVN credentials.

    I had better be f-ing able to login to Adult Swim now that AT&T owns it.

    Also, I think it's a bad idea to let service providers also be the content providers.

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