https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-20/at-t-is-said-to-face-u-s-antitrust-lawsuit-over-time-warner
The government's suit cites documents from AT&T and Time Warner to show that AT&T would run the merged business as a "cash cow" and that consumers would be harmed by higher prices.
Sadly if the merger doesn’t happen the layoffs will continue at higher rates. AT keep your money under your matress. However, you will never loss because AT&T will do whatever it takes to stay afloat. I’m surprised AT&Ts record layoffs hasn’t been all over the media.
Agree that vertical mergers are different tthan horizontal mergers because areas of overlap are less. Of course there are overlaps in corporate functions like HR, but people in this chain are not arguing otherwise. Instead, these posters simply point out that jobs that rely on new revenue streams get spared. Also, I agree with the prescient comment about video centric programming being an innovation that will create more jobs.
It’s a question of how many jobs will be killed. IF the merger does not happen AT&T will lay off much more people to keep the costs down and TW will kill a lot of jobs as well. Together the companies are stronger than being apart.
Mergers and acquisitions by definition are job killers. To say otherwise means you have no concept of how business works or you are being intentionally dishonest.
@2mkv: what mental gymnastics did you just perform to come to the conclusion that an AT&T-Time Warner merger would create jobs? The net-net would definitely result in it being a job killer. AT&T hasn’t been an innovative company in some time. Innovation is doing something NEW which, by my estimation, hasn’t been for some time. This company is reactive and very slow at that. No, this merger would absolutely hurt consumers and it would hurt the company’s bottom line.
The only thing retarded around here is the mental midget making the last comment. DIRECTV NOW already HAS TW content ... so does everyone else. It would not be profit maximizing to withhold it because money is made from ads and you don’t have ads without eyeballs. But owning the content means that you also have the incentive to CREATE mobile centric video ... and that innovation will make other content producers follow suit. My only concern is that the DoJ kills the deal AND the innovation and jobs that would go along with it.
They want content for their sh--ty netflix wannabe app/directv service
the ultimate goal is to have directv now have access to TW/WB/HBO content which is huge.
essentially they want exclusive content on THEIR platform only. that is the end game....
Content is king right now, and having directv, they can exclusively have their content for those customers only.
It's f---ing retarded if they allow them to do this
I read the actual complaint - it is on the DoJ website - before commenting. The entire case revolves around the idea that AT&T would purposely withhold content from other MPVDs to benefit our own MPVD. Here’s the problem - the DOJ then admits that (1) AT&T is an MPVD is only a minority portion of the US and (2) most customers that are not AT&T MPVD customers are tied up in term contracts. In other words - the DOJ spells out exactly why AT&T has the incentive to make sure it’s content is carried by as many MOVDs as possible. I think the DOJ is wrong on the facts - and hope I’m still here to help sell our new programming products that results from the merger.
Randall has really screwed up, again.... look at the stock price during is tenure. loser city, the whole freakin market has been on an up swing for YEARS, and AT&T is down!!! only losers own it... No one OUTSIDE of AT&T thinks he has a winning strategy.
A bit of déjà vu for ol Randy. This is about to turn in to a nightmare for him. He’s about to lose Time Warner and his job. I for one am ready for a new vision and leadership. This company has only suffered under this used car salesman with fake teeth.