Posted on 10/24/2016 9:27:30 AM PDT by Lorianne
US telecoms giant AT&T has announced that it will buy entertainment group Time Warner for nearly $86bn (£70bn).
The deal - one of the biggest this year - still needs approval from regulators.
If the takeover goes through, it would combine AT&T's distribution network with content from the Warner Brothers film studios and the cable TV channels HBO and CNN.
AT&T's chairman described it as "a perfect match" but critics say it concentrates too much media power.
'Complementary strengths'
The deal is likely to be closely scrutinised by US antitrust regulators. AT&T is already the third largest cable TV provider in the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
sell AT&T stock
Democrats are OK with this. Once they move to nationalize and socialize everything, this consolidation just makes it easier.
BJ Clinton and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 — for the children.
One may wish to consider a buy of T stock on the dip. They have been paying dividends for decades and now paying over 5%. In a low interest rate environment high dividend stocks like T, VZ etc can provide good retirement income. Depends on one’s situation of course.
What could possibly go wrveub;ev.........carrier signal lost......
Bread and circuses sure is profitable nowadays, ain’t it?
As much as I believe shareholders should be able to do as they wish with their shares, this deal is not in the public interest. As an example, may I present COMCASTNBCUNIVERSAL? A near monopoly of both content and delivery systems is never a good thing. Today’s market reaction indicates that the players believe this has no chance of happening.
Three of the most liberal people I know at work say this is a bad idea.
Yes, I picked up some AT&T a couple of months ago for two reasons: First it is affordable (compare to Apple or Amazon for example) and the other is their dividends. I wish I could get that with savings or CD's. Of course if they significantly decrease dividends if the merger goes through and the price doesn't improve, I'll look at selling and going elsewhere.
AT&T = DirectTV and now this?
Vertical integration is a great thing. Without it, Carnegie wouldn’t have been able to turn US Steel into the powerhouse it was. I see absolutely no problems with this. In fact, it’s exactly the type of business move that made America so powerful in the 20th century.
I read one report that thought they would not have to cut dividends for this deal but who knows. My point was not to push ATT specifical but mention high dividens stocks. Would not rule out att just yet. We will see
Whatever AT&T touches turns to crap. I have never dealt with a more incompetent bunch of fools regardless of the problem, internet, land line, cell line. They can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
what a monopoly this would be. Bad deal for the consumer, good deal for AT&T
It’s probably also a bad deal for AT&T shareholders. ATT is paying a big premium for Time Warner and if it’s even approved by regulators it will be with concessions. Only about 30% of acquisitions create shareholder value, 70% destroy it. Put another way, random chance would provide a 50% probability of winning, acquisitions on average are a negative for shareholder value.
It’s also a boring move and shows that AT&T lacks a management capable of coming up with an interesting strategy. Their strategy from this bid is to restrain price competition in content (hence their prior acquisition of DirectTV). This won’t last and while it can create profits in the short term, in the long term their customers will abandon them more quickly than otherwise for new media options.
I’ll argue that (squandering) $50 billion on the direct TV deal last year and $80 billion on the Time Warner deal for a total of $130 billion just might put that dividend at risk.
It’s a shrinking company whose management just levered their stockholders to the hilt on a extreme bet that TeeVee will be a money maker when watched over a smartphone. I got news for the AT&T leadership team: Millenniala expect their content to be 100% free and have zero advertising.
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