AT&T Time Warner merger to create a giant media company

AT&T has reached an agreement to buy Time Warner Inc. for $85.4 billion, $107.50 a share, evenly split between cash and stock. AT&T, the nation’s second largest cell phone carrier, will gain control of TV networks like HBO, TNT and CNN in the biggest deal of its kind since Comcast acquired NBC Universal five years ago. The companies said they expect the deal to close by the end of 2017.

“Premium content always wins,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive. “It has been true on the big screen, the TV screen, and now it’s proving true on the mobile screen.” 

AT&T already is one of the world’s largest communications companies, with more than $147 billion in revenue in 2015, according to Stephenson, who would lead the new company if the deal is allowed to go through.

The approval of the merger is not guaranteed. Lawmakers said is sure to come under the scrutiny of federal regulators over antitrust issues. 
Both sides of the 2016 presidential race have already criticized the deal. Hillary Clinton said on her website that she plans to protect consumers by strengthening antitrust laws and enforcement in order to "promote competition" and "address excessive concentration" of power among corporations, but she has not talked over the deal. Donald Trump has already condemned the deal and, on Saturday, he said that he would block the merger if he won the presidency despite the fact the authority to rebuff such a deal over antitrust laws would be left in the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice, Reuters reported.“It’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” said Trump.