With Time Warner buy, AT&T eyes $85 billion worth of content

AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion agreement late Saturday to buy Time Warner Inc is the boldest move yet by a telecommunications company to acquire content to stream over its network to attract a growing number of online viewers.

The biggest deal in the world this year will, if approved by regulators, give AT&T control of cable TV channels HBO and CNN, film studio Warner Bros and other cove ted media assets. The tie-up is likely to face intense scrutiny by US antitrust enforcers worried that AT& T might try to limit distribution of Time Warner material.

AT&T will pay $107.50 per Time Warner share, half in cash and half in stock, worth $85.4 billion overall, according to a company statement. AT&T said it expected to close the deal by the

INTERESTINGLY, TIME WARNER’S OWN MERGER WITH AOL IN 2000 IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE MOST ILLADVISED CORPORATE MARRIAGES ON RECORD.

end of 2017.

Dallas-based AT&T said the US Department of Justice would review the deal and that the companies were determining which Federal Communications Commission licences, if any, would be transferred to AT&T in the deal.

US lawmakers were already worried about cable company Comcast Corp’s $30 billion acquisition of NBCUniversal.

“Such a massive consolidation in this industry requires rigorous evaluation and serious scrutiny,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Senate Judiciary Committee member and a former attorney general.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said he would block any AT&T-Time Warner deal if he wins the election. Trump has complained about media coverage of his campaign, especially by Time Warner’s CNN. “It’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” Trump said.

Democratic rival Hillary Clinton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AT&T‘s main wireless phone and broadband service business is showing signs of slowing. It bought satellite TV provider DirecTV last year for $48.5 billion. New York-based Time Warner owns the HBO, CNN, TBS and TNT networks, Warner Bros studio, and has a 10% stake in video streaming site Hulu.