Bewkes may be baiting a bigger fish (Tim)

The decision by Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes to quickly agree to AT&T’s $85 billion offer was made because he thought the telecom giant was the perfect fit for his media company — or to smoke out a rival bid.

At least one well-placed Wall Street source thinks it could be the latter.

The reason? AT&T is paying Time Warner a breakup fee of just $500 million, a relatively small amount given the deal’s significant regulatory risk.

By comparison, AT&T agreed to pay a record $4 billion fee to T-Mobile USA before regulators in 2011 blocked it from completing that $39 billion merger.

Bewkes is not forcing AT&T to pay more because he may be expecting a second bidder to emerge, said the source, who months ago tipped col- leagues to the AT&T-Time Warner talks.

Bewkes is not desperate to sell but needed to sign an agreement to get others to present their own offers, the source said.

Apple, for example, met with Time Warner several times in the last 18 months but has not presented an offer, the source said. Some on Wall Street believe Apple chief Tim Cook is still interested in Time Warner.

“A rival will make an offer by Thanksgiving or not at all,” the source said.

Time Warner has agreed to pay AT&T $1.7 billion, $2.50 a share, if it accepts a rival offer.

Meanwhile, two key lawmakers on Sunday said they had concerns about the deal. One of them, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), said he was “skeptical” that big deals wouldn’t lead to higher prices.