On the AT&T side, I think, they just completed a $50 billion deal for DirecTV last year. No one has mentioned the debt balance.
The debt terrifies me on this, why? You're going to have to , they say they're going to cut about $1 billion in expenses. What's $1 billion when you have $200 billion? So they'll catch up to their debt in 200 years? I mean, it's not a good number.
So, to give you an idea there, AT&T right now, their cash balance is about $6 billion. Net debt is $120 billion. They would have to take on Time Warner's $22 billion of net debt. And then, the cash consideration for this deal alone is over $40 billion. So, Dan, that $200 billion number you threw out, throw it all together, you're getting pretty darn close
I'm rounding up a little bit. But this is one of those deals where you have to assume everything is going to go right if you're a stockholder and you want to hold this long term. You have to assume that not only does AT&T buy this, but they can integrate properly, they can cost-cut without hurting quality, and they can leverage that to gain subscribers or advertising and more viewers. That's a lot of things that have to go right before you have kind of a debt crisis.
Final takeaway, Good luck with pricing controls and open access for competitors, the new antitrust avoidance techniques are working by design,, paid by the lobbiest and your friends the government