AT&T Reaches Deal to Buy Time Warner for $85.4 Billion

RadioOnFire.com - AT&T Inc. has reached an agreement to buy Time Warner Inc. for $85.4 billion in a deal that would transform the phone company into a media giant.

The wireless carrier agreed to pay $107.50 a share, evenly split between cash and stock. The companies said they expect the deal to close by the end of 2017.

AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson would head the new company. The companies said Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes would stay for an interim period following the close of the deal to help with the transition.

The combined business would pair the carrier’s millions of wireless and pay-television subscribers with Time Warner’s deep media lineup, which includes networks such as CNN, TNT, the prized HBO channel and Warner Bros. film and TV studio. It furthers AT&T’s bet that television and video can drive growth into a stalled wireless market.

“Premium content always wins. It has been true on the big screen, the TV screen and now it’s proving true on the mobile screen,” Mr. Stephenson, 56 years old, said in a release.

A major question is whether regulators will be willing to bless another major consolidation in the media industry especially after misgivings from a prior deal between Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co.’s NBCUniversal. At the very least, former regulatory officials say there could be significant conditions placed on the combination.

Source Wall Street Journal