This may sound surprising to you, but looking at the deals AT&T had close may look like this short children story book
the scene began with just one sheep jumping off the cliff to die (DirecTV Acquisition). The shepherds (CEO and Board of Directors) had left around 275,500 sheep to graze and they relaxed while having their breakfasts. In a few moments, they saw all the 275,500 sheep following the first one and jumping off the same cliff. So the management team decided to confused the sheep by acquiring Time Warner inc. This led to the death of 27000 sheep in 3 quarters altogether.
Wondering how the others survived? the others, who jumped after the 450 sheep, did not die as the fall had cushioned after the death of the earlier ones (CWA), Since there were a lot of dead bodies already, the rest of the sheep survived by falling on the wool (wall street) or the soft pile (ATT STOCK) of the other dead sheep.(employees).
Welcome to the AT&T family of layoffs, LOL