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AT&T buying Time Warner?


Georgie56

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Oh what crazy crab stuff is this?

 

Not this again.

We already had to break up the Bell System in 1984, now we are gonna have to break up AT&T?

 

Get ready folks for the return of only 3 TV channels...

Apple TV

Google TV

Amazon TV

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And your point is? Posted here since someone posted about Charter and Time Warner here figured it would be seen more here then a forum way below.

Neither AT&T nor Time Warner have anything to do with local news.

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There is no reason for this not to be shot down, not with the Comcast-NBCU deal rubber-stamped. I really wish the government would find a reason to force Comcast to spin off NBCU, instead of approving this tie-up.

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There is no reason for this not to be shot down, not with the Comcast-NBCU deal rubber-stamped. I really wish the government would find a reason to force Comcast to spin off NBCU, instead of approving this tie-up.

 

This is very reminiscent of movie studios owning movie houses in the 20s-50s. The SEC did not allow that to continue very long and I would hope that they'd have enough sense to see a similar outcome here.

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Ironically you're talking about the same company lol
It's kind of like Macy's. Federated Department Stores, which was really the outgrowth of the Lazarus department stores in Ohio, bought Macy's out of Bankruptcy Court. But since Lazarus didn't have the appropriate amount of "zip" throughout the rest of the country (or any of their other local names for that matter), the stores all became Macy's.

 

One of the baby bells, SBC (Southwestern Bell) gobbled up several other baby bills and eventually gobbled up AT&T. At first they were going to keep the SBC name, but they decided that AT&T had more zip to it so they took their old parent company's name. They made the right decision.

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It's kind of like Macy's. Federated Department Stores, which was really the outgrowth of the Lazarus department stores in Ohio, bought Macy's out of Bankruptcy Court. But since Lazarus didn't have the appropriate amount of "zip" throughout the rest of the country (or any of their other local names for that matter), the stores all became Macy's.

 

One of the baby bells, SBC (Southwestern Bell) gobbled up several other baby bills and eventually gobbled up AT&T. At first they were going to keep the SBC name, but they decided that AT&T had more zip to it so they took their old parent company's name. They made the right decision.

 

Ohhh those little baby bell cheese thingys from Costco are soooo good.

Just sayin.

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Wait. Didn't Time Warner get rid of a cable company called Time Warner? Now it is merging with another cable company? Stupid people getting millions of dollars for making these dumb decisions and people wonder why Trump is the Republican nominee?

 

Time Warner had split itself into two companies several years ago, because it had become too big to be attractive in any kind of merger. Charter eventually bought Time Warner Cable. Now AT&T is buying Time Warner, Inc., which is its media company (CNN, Warner Brothers, etc.). Two different Time Warner companies. Two different deals.

 

Please don't call others stupid when you don't understand what you're talking about. And I don't get what either has to do with the orange faced guy.

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It's the way of the world now: owning the content & controlling the distribution pipeline means big bucks for these companies. Normally, in the days when the government actually worked for, you know, the people, they'd have shut these mergers down as monopolistic. And this company would be massive: it would own Warner Brothers studios, along with HBO/Cinemax, plus all the Turner networks. Combined with uVerse and DirecTV, they would actually surpass Comcast as the dominant media conglomerate.

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Time Warner had split itself into two companies several years ago, because it had become too big to be attractive in any kind of merger. Charter eventually bought Time Warner Cable. Now AT&T is buying Time Warner, Inc., which is its media company (CNN, Warner Brothers, etc.). Two different Time Warner companies. Two different deals.

 

Please don't call others stupid when you don't understand what you're talking about. And I don't get what either has to do with the orange faced guy.

I know exactly what happened. Time Warner was a content producer that also had owned distribution. In other words TW was a content company and a cable/internet company. TW got rid of the cable company because Wall Street told them to. Now AT&T is buying TW to create another ..... Content + cable/internet company.

 

Yes, this is stupid.

 

That happened to Wendy's, where an activist investor made them spin off Tim Hortons. Five years later, that same activist investor thought it was a good idea to merge Tim Hortons with Burger King.

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It's the way of the world now: owning the content & controlling the distribution pipeline means big bucks for these companies. Normally, in the days when the government actually worked for, you know, the people, they'd have shut these mergers down as monopolistic. And this company would be massive: it would own Warner Brothers studios, along with HBO/Cinemax, plus all the Turner networks. Combined with uVerse and DirecTV, they would actually surpass Comcast as the dominant media conglomerate.
Wall Street is just creating banking fees for itself. That's the only way you can explain why they told Time Warner that their combination wasn't good enough and forced them to spin off their cable company, and now somebody is pulling the strings behind AT&T and Time Warner merger. I still question whether a utility company has what it takes to run a content operation, but I guess we shall see.
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Wall Street is just creating banking fees for itself. That's the only way you can explain why they told Time Warner that their combination wasn't good enough and forced them to spin off their cable company, and now somebody is pulling the strings behind AT&T and Time Warner merger.

 

TW Cable split from TW during the divorce of AOL and TW in 2009 as part of their larger reorganization to go to a pure-play content company. And If you ask me, AOL Time Warner wasn't as big of a mistake as everyone claims it was -- it actually is what is spurring these new media - tech relations. AOLTW was just ahead of it's time by about a decade.

 

I still question whether a utility company has what it takes to run a content operation, but I guess we shall see.

 

Also, I don't think content management will be an issue -- they'll probably be mostly hands-off like Comcast is with NBCU. They'll have way too much content to actually hands-on manage. This is nothing but free cash for AT&T to throw at their shareholders.

 

The REAL question is who's next to be consummated?

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