American telecommunications giant AT&T has reached an agreement to acquire media conglomerate Time Warner, owner of CNN and HBO channels and Warner Bros. film studio, a banking source reported on Saturday. This is a transaction worth over $80 billion.
The merger is expected to be officially announced no later than before the opening of the American financial markets on Monday, but it is not excluded that this could happen on the night between Saturday and Sunday after the boards of directors of both companies meet, the unnamed source added, according to France Presse. The market value of Time Warner is estimated at $69.6 billion and AT&T at $230.6 billion, media reports.
The merger of two media giants worth over $300 billion will certainly face thorough scrutiny from antitrust authorities due to its potential impact on the media landscape. Analysts believe that this transaction could trigger other major mergers among media companies.
At the same time, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has promised to prevent the merger if he becomes president, citing it as an example of a “power structure” directed against him and voters. Trump, in a speech in Gettysburg, promised to prevent the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, arguing that it creates a “power structure” dangerous to democracy, Reuters reports.
– As an example of the power structure I am fighting against, AT&T is acquiring Time Warner and thus CNN, which is a deal we will not approve in my administration because it is too great a concentration of power in the hands of a small number of people, Trump said.
Trump also stated that he would seek to undo the acquisition of the media company NBC Universal by Comcast Corp that occurred in 2013.
