AT&T CEO: ‘No intention’ of selling CNN to buy Time Warner

AT&T’s $85.4 billion bid to acquire Time Warner may need a Christmas miracle to close by 2018.

Approval of the deal by the Justice Department now may require the sale of some assets, such as cable news network CNN or satellite TV service DirecTV. But the sale of CNN is a nonstarter for AT&T CEO and Chairman Randall Stephenson.

“Until now, we’ve never commented on our discussions with the DOJ,” he said in a statement to USA TODAY Wednesday. But, he said, “it’s important to set the record straight. Throughout this process, I have never offered to sell CNN and have no intention of doing so.”

He reiterated that stance Thursday while speaking at The New York Times Dealbook conference. “I have never been told that the price of getting the deal done was selling CNN. Period. And likewise I have never offered to sell CNN,” he said. That “is off the table,” he said.

AT&T had expected the deal, announced in October 2016, to close by the end of the year. But the DOJ is seeking trade-offs for its approval.

The sale of CNN or DirecTV is a concession the DOJ has proposed as a way to satisfy antitrust concerns of the strategic merger, which would wed Time Warner, which also owns HBO, TNT and Warner Bros. film studio, with the largest U.S. pay-TV provider and No. 2 wireless carrier, a company official familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly told USA TODAY.

CNN reported the DOJ sought the divestiture of Turner, which includes CNN as well as other channels such as TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies and TruTV.

As a result of all the back and forth, AT&T CFO John Stephens told investors Wednesday the deal now faces “uncertain” timing for closing.

Serving as more than a backdrop of the deal: President Trump’s animosity for CNN. Trump repeatedly has called CNN “fake news” and criticized the AT&T-Time Warner merger during the presidential campaign, saying his administration would not approve the deal “because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”

In February, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner met with CNN’s parent company Time Warner and mentioned the cable news network’s coverage of the administration as slanted.

But AT&T remains confident the deal will go through, even if it will have to argue the DOJ’s case in court.

Last week, reports emerged that the Justice Department was preparing a possible suit against the merger. AT&T dismissed that as standard procedure by the DOJ.

Time Warner shares fell 1.6% Thursday to $87.05, while shares of AT&T rose nearly 1.7% to $34.