IT’S AT&T CALLING

Takes out TW in big $85B deal

AT&T confirmed Saturday night that it is acquiring Time Warner for $107.50 per share or $85.4 billion.

The mega-merger, tipped since Friday, sees the exit of the Time Warner boss Jeff Bewkes, who for decades has been the cable industry’s best friend, helping them sell programming bundles by offering HBO promotional subscriptions.

But Bewkes, frustrated by content distributors’ disjointed “TV Everywhere” plans to offer television on the Internet, just turned around and ran off with the phone hombres.

“AT&T has validated that Time Warner’s assets are worth more than where the public markets view them,” said entertainment analyst Rich Greenfield of BTIG, who also suggested Time Warner management may have foreseen an iffy future for standalone content players.

“If Time Warner and its management team were confident in the future of the media sector, particularly the cable-network industry, they would not be selling now,” Greenfield explained.

The deal means that the likes of Comcast and Charter will soon have to deal with AT&T to buy content, assuming the purchase is OK’d by federal regulators.

Because Time Warner owns half of the broadcast network The CW, the Federal Communications Commission will have to agree to the license transfer.

“This is a perfect match of two companies with complementary strengths who can bring a fresh approach to how the media and communications industry works for customers, content creators, distributors and advertisers,” said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who will lead the new company.

The company statement released Saturday evening underscored the consumer benefits of the merger, the biggest media deal of the year.

But the unique aspect of the deal can’t be underscored enough. The wireless giant with 50 million customers already owns location and search data about its customers.

Time Warner content will only serve to boost the amount of time viewers spend with the company. The firm’s mobile network covers 315 million people in the United States.

Listed as a benefit of the deal: “Customer insights across TV, mobile and broadband will allow [the] new company to offer more relevant and valuable addressable advertising.”

The FCC is to rule this week on whether Internet service providers must ask for customers permission before collecting their search habits and location and serving it up to advertisers.

Stephenson added that one of customers’ biggest “pain points” is the inability to access content they are paying for on any device.

The telecom giant said it expects to see $1 billion of synergies in three years from procurement cost saving.

AT&T will pay for the deal by taking a $40 billion, 18-month loan.

The pact gives Time Warner shareholders between 14.4 percent and 15.7 percent of AT&T.

The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2017.