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AT&T buying Time Warner/Warner Bros./DCTV/DCEU
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Started by Bosco685,

54 posts in this topic

Bosco685

Bosco685

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I had posted a short article in the TV-Movie-Game general thread. But this is sounding much more beneficial to Warner Bros./DC Comics as details come out.

 

DC Comics, Warner Bros. Parent Time Warner To Sell To AT&T For $80 Billion Reports Say

 

AT&T is set to buy Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Bros. and DC Comics, for $80 billion.

 

The agreement reached by between AT&T and Time Warner sets the price of the media conglomerate at $105-110 a share. And official announcement is expected as early as Saturday evening, according to the Wall Street Journal.

 

This buyout will marry Warner Bros. vast media library, which includes DC Comics intellectual properties, television networks like CNN, TNT, and HBO, and Warner Bros. studios to AT&T's vast networks of streaming services and mobile and cable subscribers.

 

Even if the reports are true, the merger isn't a done deal just yet. For two companies of this size to come together will require a thorough regulatory investigation.

 

The last time two companies of this size came together was when telecommunications giant Comcast purchased entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal. A successful merger between AT&T and Time Warner would produce Comcast's first real rival in terms of size and scale.

 

Could it lead to more content desired to feed the extensive AT&T and Time Warner pipelines?

 

Why the rumored AT&T merger with Time Warner is such a huge deal

 

In what some analysts are calling an unprecedented “seismic shift” for the media and technology world, AT&T may soon buy the entertainment company Time Warner, a deal that could turn the legacy telecom carrier into a media titan the likes of which America has never seen.

 

A combination between the two companies could rival some of the biggest mergers in history, with AT&T potentially gaining control over hugely valuable brands spanning television, film, sports, news, video games and mobile and residential Internet service.

 

The potential merger highlights one of the most definitive trends of the modern media business: the push from tech and telecommunications giants to control the lucrative, popular content they once passively supplied.

 

It follows a wave of dealmaking and consolidation that could radically transform viewers' leisure time and media spending, including Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal, Google's push into live-TV streaming, and the original-programming investments of Amazon and Netflix.

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Mephisto

Mephisto

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I predicted WB would sell DC to Disney in the next decade two years ago.

 

When Ted Turner merged with AOL it became a disaster for him and he lost a lot of money. It also lead to Vince Mcmahon acquiring WCW and from AOL Time Warner shortly after Vinny Mac got WCW and Vince cemented a monopoly to this day with the closest competition to spring up being TNA which is on the brink bankruptcy.

 

 

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Eclipse

Eclipse

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ATT will go ahead and sell the DC portion to Disney.

 

That would be interesting. Imagine if they merged the two comic universes.

 

And a lot of people would be out of jobs. A lot. See what happened to WCW after WWE bought them.

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shadroch

shadroch

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Apple's and Oranges.

There were only so many slots on the wrestling shows, especially the pay per views.

One company owning both comic universes would save money, and there would be no reason to

reduce product.

I have long thought TW would be best served by licensing DC to Disney, if Disney would do it.

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kimik

kimik

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ATT will go ahead and sell the DC portion to Disney.

 

License, maybe, but not likely to sell it. The DC IP is worth too much. No need to sell it off and pass on all of the future revenues you could receive from licensing it.

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Bosco685

Bosco685

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Warner Bros. CEO Confident In Geoff Johns' Vision For The DCEU

 

wb_ceo_GEOFF_JOHNS_dceu.jpg

 

In the New York Times' wide-ranging interview with WB CEO Kevin Tsuijhara, topics covered included the pending acquisition of Warner Bros.' parent company Time Warner by AT &T and the financial success of the DCEU in spite of toxic reviews. In regards to the latter, Tsuijhara stated, "Quietly, we’ve been having an amazing year. The narrative, over all, has not reflected that."

 

Warner Bros. sits in the long shadow of HBO, a darling of the news media and Wall Street. When AT&T agreed to buy Time Warner for $85 billion last month, Warner Bros. was largely a footnote in the resulting analysis — even though the studio, among other things, has promising streaming services in the works involving Harry Potter and Batman that could be supercharged by the telecommunications company.

 

So how does Mr. Tsujihara correct the narrative?

 

The surest way is to deliver a smash hit, and Warner’s film division may be holding one in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

 

More hits could follow. Over the next year, Warner Bros. will release “Wonder Woman,” “Kong: Skull Island,” “Justice League,” Christopher Nolan’s war epic “Dunkirk” and two animated Lego movies. Salted among those behemoths are lower-cost entries from Warner’s New Line Cinema unit, like “Annabelle 2,” a horror movie.

 

Citing the $1.6 billion earned by Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, WB's top studio executive added, "People overlook our consistency."

 

But the studio chief isn't satisfied withjust the bottom line. He wants to change the generally negative perception attached to the studio's recent offerings and release films that earn praise from audiences and critics alike. Per The NYT article, "Mr. Tsujihara said he was confident that management changes he has been making (putting a pair of executives, Geoff Johns and Jon Berg, in charge of superhero movies, for instance) will make for more satisfied fans. With any luck, even a critic or two could come around."

 

He also went on to specifically note his satisfaction with Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman, which will be the first release under the stewardship of Johns and Berg. "The thing that really makes me confident is that I’ve seen 'Wonder Woman,’ and it’s great."

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Bosco685

Bosco685

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AT&T And Time Warner Agree To Another Extension Of Merger Deadline

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 AT&T and Time Warner have agreed to extend the deadline for their long-delayed merger until June 21, according to an SEC filing Thursday.

 

The extension should allow time for a verdict in the Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking to block the deal. The trial will begin in March. June 21 is the date when both parties can officially abandon the deal.

 

The companies had previously set April 22 as the deadline, and before that Oct. 22 of 2017. The $85B combination was first announced in October 2016, when Barack Obama was president. This year, under President Donald Trump, the White House and CNN have repeatedly clashed, leading to widespread suspicion that the grudge has played out in the merger review.

 

So-called “vertical” mergers like AT&T (a telco with distribution assets but almost no content) and Time Warner (a content company with almost no distribution assets) were long believed to be acceptable to regulators. When the deal was announced, its approval was nearly a foregone conclusion and it had breezed through early reviews from a range of bodies before the DOJ threw a flag.

 

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