WarnerMedia- From the proposal to the tribunal
AT&T and Time Warner merger has been in the light ever since the rumors came out. Certainly, the very first question that comes to mind is: What is causing this huge media startup conglomerate?
Before going on, let us get a brief idea of the two companies.
AT&T Inc. — an American multinational company founded as a subsidiary of the Bell Telephone company, also one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world.
Time Warner — one of the largest content creator and distributor companies in the world holding infamous subsidiaries like HBO, Warner Bros, etc.
The ever-growing competition from tech giants like Facebook, Google, Netflix and others is driving such mergers. Before their arrival, the media companies were paid off by bills of the cable TV and the ads. With the scope of online streaming and grouping ads as per the interested users, their existence is close to the extinction. Thus, in order to get bigger and better, these media giants are acquitting the smaller ones.
With its rivals Comcast and Disney involved in such acquisitions, AT&T made an offer to acquire Time Warner for 108.7 billion USD on October 22, 2016. The proposed merger was confirmed on June 12, 2018, after AT&T won an antitrust lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department filed in 2017 to attempt to block the acquisition. Lately, on 14 June 2018, a deal worth 85 billion USD was locked between AT&T and Time Warner, forming WarnerMedia — a wholly owned AT&T subsidiary with other former assets, with John Stankey as the new CEO.
Let us see what the verdict brings in for the consumers and where it takes off in the near future!
