At&t is in advanced negotiations to acquire Time Warner, and if it will go in the port, the operation will be a milestone in the convergence between media, communication and the Internet. Is as reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing sources involved in the operation, which could be announced on the weekend of October 23 and that would combine the portfolio of services wireles s broadband and tvsatellitare At&t entertainment empire Time Warner, which includes cable networks such as Tnt, Tbs , Cnn, the scope premium channel HBO and the movie and television studios of Warner Bros., The operation is expected to be mixed, part cash and part swap of shares, but the situation at the 21 Octob er is still fluid and are not excluded shots of the scene. The action by Time Warner was up 6.7% 90,94 dollars in early trading in the afternoon of Friday the 21st, after the Wall Street Journal has anticipated the news, while At&t has dropped 2.6% to 37,65 dollars.
A merger between the two companies would be the most ambitious marriage between content and distribution in the sectors of telecommunications and media since 2011, when Comcast Corp. bought NbcUniversal, and would create a giant able to compete with the giant of the cable. The transaction would be by far the richest deal in the media in recent years: Time Warner has a market capitalization of $ 71 billion, while At&t capitalizes 231 billion.
it Is likely that this agreement must pass the scrutiny of regulators after the many doubts in the headquarters of antitrust emerged in the occasion of the deal, Comcast-NbcUniversak. As pointed out by analysts and experts in the field, it is not excluded that they can become live bidders for Time Warner, such as, for example, conglomerates of traditional media companies or tech companies like Apple and Google. According to Marci Ryvicker, analyst at Wells Fargo, Time Warner would like to be assessed at least $ 100 per share, then 105 billion for the whole company. An agreement to $ 100 in cash, and paper would add 4% of the profits to the accounts for 2018 At&t and should not require a cut in dividends, according to the analyst of Jp Morgan’s Philip Cusick.
This news evokes another mega-operation, 2000, the merger between Aol and Time Warner. Even then it was a bet on multimedia convergence, in which the Internet service America Online (Aol) was to be co mpleted and strengthened by the content of Time Warner. But the merger proved to be a failure, caused by the bursting of the Internet bubble of 2001, from a clash of cultures and poor knowledge on the way in which each company would have been able to help the other.
At&t, led by chief executive officer Randall Stephenson, has radically revised its strategy in recent years, as the mobile phone in the United States had become saturated, and years of consolidation of the sector left no space to big business. In 2011, the regulators prevented its attempt to buy T-Mobile. Last year, the giant of telecommunications the american has acquired for 50 billion dollars DirecTv, thus becoming the largest operator of pay tv. At&t has today 117,3 billion of long-term debt, which could rise to 200 billion, with the deal of Time Warner. The alternative, which is already in the past, the company has made appeal, it is a capital increase, which would increase the total dividend to be paid to shareholders compared to the current 12 billion dollars. (reproduction reserved)
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