AT&T Completes $85 Billion Time Warner Acquisition (axios.com)

AT&T on Thursday evening said that it has completed its $85 billion purchase of Time Warner, just two days after a judge ruled that the deal, originally announced two years ago, could proceed over objections from U.S. antitrust regulators. From a report: The Department of Justice did not file for an emergency stay of the judge's ruling, per the judge's request, but still reserves the right to appeal. In a statement, Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive of AT&T said moving forward his company will bring a fresh approach to how the media and entertainment industry works for consumers, content creators, distributors and advertisers. "The content and creative talent at Warner Bros., HBO and Turner are first-rate. Combine all that with AT&T's strengths in direct-to-consumer distribution, and we offer customers a differentiated, high-quality, mobile-first entertainment experience," he said.

Comments

how long to get HBO 4K live on directv?

[Joe_Dragon]

how long to get HBO 4K live on directv?

Re:how long to get HBO 4K live on directv?

[Snotnose]

How fast can you instal Plex on a Pi and learn how to use bittorrent?

Re:how long to get HBO 4K live on directv?

[antdude]

And others like cable TV services?

Re: how long to get HBO 4K live on directv?

[DaHat]

Given the successes the feds & some private companies have had taking over illicit sites or botnets... I'm just waiting for it to be revealed that one or more of the popular VPN providers has been keeping more data than is known, and suddenly instead of a single C&D for what they happened to catch you doing last month... you get a dozen (along with a settlement offer to avoid an even more expensive lawsuit) for everything that you grabbed over the last several years.

Unless you fully control the other end, all a VPN does is give permission to a 3rd party to monitor your traffic.

Damn, that was fast.

[grep -v '.*' *]

Or was I not paying attention? I sure wish they could fix OTHER important things as fast.

Re:Damn, that was fast.

[DigiShaman]

The Grand Nagus would be pleased!

Been there, Done that...

[Etcetera]

... Got the T-shirt:
https://slashdot.org/story/00/01/10/0816250/aol-and-time-warner-confirm-merger-plans

Also, these Slashdot pull quotes in the Washington Post are awesome:

In one virtual gathering place for technology buffs yesterday--the Slashdot Web site--Managing Editor Robin Miller kicked off a rollicking debate over the merger with this screed: "Now you'll be able to get all your Internet needs, from connectivity to content to shopping, delivered by a single experienced company. No more need to deal with Web sites that stray from the party line, take risks . . . or any of that other messy old-fashioned 'Internet as anarchy' stuff.

"To get online in the future, all you'll need to do is plug in your computer, turn off your brain, and enjoy!"

If nothing else, AOL Time Warner will toil in a media environment that's undergoing a whirlwind evolution. No one can say with any certainty, for example, whether in a few years most consumers will go onto the Internet from their televisions, or whether tomorrow's TV viewers will watch their favorite shows on their computer screens.

What's likely, however, is that high-speed Internet service will soon become a mass-market phenomenon. Access to the Internet via fatter cable lines is about 100 times faster than traditional phone and modem connections. And control over broadband is considered pivotal to the health of both companies, said Mark Berman, an analyst at Mediaweek.com, an online trade publication.

- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/01/11/aol-to-acquire-time-warner-in-record-183-billion-merger/92bdb300-0f48-4dfd-ae7e-38d9aec6417a/?utm_term=.d94ff7b431e7

Much ado about nothing

[alvinrod]

I suspect that this will probably work out about as well as the AOL / Time Warner merger back around 2000. A lot of hullabaloo in the press and middle management from both sides sabotaging the supposed "synergistic experience" that the merger is designed to create over fear of becoming redundant as a result. You'll have executives who might know a fair bit about one field trying to make business decisions in another where they're no more knowledgeable than the average person off the street, and the results are all too predictable.

Re:Much ado about nothing

[psycho12345]

It does not. Time Warner Cable split from Timer Warner. Time Warner Cable was then bought by Charter, and made into Spectrum, which you have today.

AT&T bought Time Warner, which consists of things like CNN, HBO, Warner Bro studio, and a few other channels.

This merger is a direct result of 2 things

1) Comcast paving the way by buying NBC
2) Rise of OTT providers becoming content producers (Netflix, Amazon).

Dear AT&T...

[Narcocide]

Please now that you have achieved global dominance now force DirecTV to fully support their own TiVo product. This Genie shit is shit. FFS you're still paying for them to air TiVo commercials that imply it's fully supported.

Re:Dear AT&T...

[olsmeister]

They did a software update to my Genie about a month ago. Now everything is like molasses. Sometimes it's 4-5 seconds between when you press a button on the remote control and when the thing responds. It's absolutely ridiculous and borderline unusable. It wasn't that great before but if I had a way to roll it back, I sure would.

Re:Dear AT&T...

[tsa]

Global dominance?

Up Next

[mentil]

As promised, now that the AT&T/Time Warner deal was judge-approved, expect the Sprint/T-mobile deal to move forward. And for Fox to be bought by Disney or Comcast.
By the time we have flying cars, there'll just be 3 conglomerates that one can work for, Shadowrun-style.

Re:Up Next

[youngone]

By the time we have flying cars, there'll just be 3 conglomerates that one can work for, Shadowrun-style.

That's the end goal of capitalism, unless it is regulated.
Unfortuntely the corporations own those who appoint the regulators, so guess what is going to happen?
You could view it as a good thing though, you won't need to go through all the worry and stress of having to choose. There will be one provider of any goods or services you may want.

That's capitalism at it's most efficient right there.

Re:Up Next

[psycho12345]

Which they traded for the worst kind of regulation: Pay Trump, and you can do anything you want. See the multitude of bribes being paid to Cohen, as well as the variety of payments to Trump properties worldwide.

Re:Up Next

[barc0001]

What fucking reality are you living in? Because it's not the one where the Trump administration's FCC just approved the merger in the FA over the objections of the Justice Department on the grounds it'll hurt consumers. Or the one where the Trump administration gave 1.5 Trillion in tax breaks to corporations that are busy using it to consolidate, buy up outstanding stock, buy smaller companies and gear up automation to lay people off.

Re:Up Next

[Anonymous Coward]

Um... Trump took donations pretty quickly when he started running and he is getting in trouble for using that to pay for his other stuff as well from what I hear just like how he is in trouble using his charity as a slush fund.

And deregulation isn't always a good thing and overall, Trump seems to be trying to get rid of regulations you want to keep while trying to keep the regulations you want to get rid of. Just going into those details would turn this into a frigging book he is screwing up so much.

Re:Up Next

[The Cynical Critic]

Yes, he launched his campaign on his own dime and got pretty far by just saying outrageous things that caused the press to freak out, but pretty quickly had to start relying on donations and contributions like most other politicians.

Sure, he's not adding to the regulatory burden, but the stuff he's removing is actually the stuff that actually makes sense and whose removal only benefits big corporations. In other words he's just as corrupt as they come.

Re:Up Next

[gtall]

Launched the campaign on his own dime? Oh, I expect we'll need to overlook all the pac money he got, the wealthy donors he slimed. About halfway down the page at https://www.opensecrets.org/ne... shows his campaign donors. And his own money was in the form of loans if memory serves correct.

Re:Up Next

[drinkypoo]

See the multitude of bribes being paid to Cohen, as well as the variety of payments to Trump properties worldwide.

Cohen's gonna flip to avoid going to FPMITA prison for the rest of his natural life and then some on umpty-ump charges of this and that.

Re:Up Next

[ranton]

As promised, now that the AT&T/Time Warner deal was judge-approved, expect the Sprint/T-mobile deal to move forward. And for Fox to be bought by Disney or Comcast.

While this ruling does make a Fox/Comcast deal more likely (and the bid has already been made), it has little to do with the Sprint/T-mobile merger. The AT&T / Time Warner merger was a vertical merger, while the Sprint/T-mobile deal would be a horizontal one. The text of the ruling seems to say the deal was allowed at least in large part because they were not direct competitors. The Sprint / T-mobile merger may still happen, but this ruling doesn't give much insight into it.

Re:Up Next

[turp182]

Also considering the politically situation we are really close to Idiocracy being a documentary.

All we need now is for Fuddruckers to begin the name changes.

Re:Up Next

[ScentCone]

Um... Trump took donations pretty quickly when he started running and he is getting in trouble for using that to pay for his other stuff as well from what I hear just like how he is in trouble using his charity as a slush fund.

No. He tried to close down that charity long before his campaign picked up. Because he was in a long-standing beef with the (now resigned in disgrace) NY AG, he had to keep it and its books open pending some movement in the case. It sat for two years. The AG had to resign, and one of his minions decided, for obviously political reasons, to pick it up and announce it as a distraction on the same day that the DoG IG's report came out.

Regardless, the foundation's bottom line is clear: the took in less money than they ultimately doled out to charity recipients. The family funded the set-up and administration of the foundation, so that no contributed donor money ever went to pay to run it. But the foundation dished out (to charitable recipients that are all on the record, you can read it for yourself) more money than donors provided, and the family had to make up the difference, adding yet more money to the fund to meet those gifts.

Trump seems to be trying to get rid of regulations you want to keep while trying to keep the regulations you want to get rid of

On balance, no. I'm pretty happy with the regulations he's scrapping and the few he's altered/added. Also happy with the Obama-era executive one-man-pen-signing stuff that he's allowed to expire or undo. Those are things that should have been done legislatively or through proper regulatory channels, but Obama too often dealt with it unilaterally and with deliberately temporary mechanisms as a way to make trouble for his successor and the legislature. Nobody will miss that approach.

So much

[rsilvergun]

winning. I hear they at least tried to block it, but this is what you get with the best people. Well, that and 30-40 years of the judiciary being staffed by right wingers. Hell, Obama himself was pretty right wing in most respects. He'd be a Republican if Clinton hadn't shifted the Overton window so far to the right.

Re:So much

[Anonymous Coward]

Obama is not a tyrant. He didn't wave his magic wand and create "ObamaCare". There is this thing called the legislative branch. You should read about it.

Re:So much

[oh_my_080980980]

Obama:

Went from 2 to 7 wars.

Ran out of bombs.

Made Bush tax cuts permanent.

Pushed for the TPP.

Yeah that's pretty right wing.

Choice, Wwweeeeeee!

[Tablizer]

Now I get 1,000 channels I don't want for $109.95 instead of 500 I don't want for $99.95. WhattaBaghin!

Internet is going to turn into TV

[presidenteloco]

in the US anyway.

Net neutrality gone. Check.
Pipe companies being TV megachannels. Check.
Only thing that's left is to squeeze the upstart internet content providers (Youtube, Netflix) out.

Cable seems to be dying

[walterbyrd]

With high-speed internet, who needs a cable box? Just stream everything.

Seems to me everybody is cutting the cable. I did so myself years ago. $150 a month *and* watch commercials? No thanks. Roku, Plex, and a digital antenna, and that's all I need.

How is Time-Warner a bargain at $85 billion when nobody wants to watch commercials, or pay for cable?

DTVNow better start authenticating Turner again.

[sabbede]

I have DirecTV Now. It used to authenticate for the various Turner channel websites, apps and Roku channel. Not long ago it stopped being an option to login to them with my DTVN credentials.

I had better be f-ing able to login to Adult Swim now that AT&T owns it.

Also, I think it's a bad idea to let service providers also be the content providers.

Re:DTVNow better start authenticating Turner again

[sabbede]

Not working yet. I'll give them a little more time before I complain.

A couple of years

[Anonymous Coward]

This merger was being worked on for a couple of years (it was started in the Obama years back in 2016 - maybe even quietly 2015: these things take a while to negotiate) and the only thing stopping it was regulatory approval. And over the past year, AT&T was fighting the US Justice Department over the merger.

When they got approval from the George W. Bush appointed Federal Judge, it was just a matter of finalizing everything.

Actually as far as mergers goes, this was a long one.

Re:Great! When do they buy Alphabet?

[damn_registrars]

And when does Reddit buy Slashdot?

Why would Reddit want to do that? Reddit is growing while Slashdot is shrinking. Reddit code is being developed while Slashdot - which has had over a decade to figure out unicode and still hasn't done so - is festering. They'd be better off buying the IP rights to compuserve or prodigy.