The period of validity of AT&T 's acquisition of time Warner is extended until next year, when it is ready to fight the Ministry of Justice.
the validity period of the takeover offer made by AT&T last year will expire, so the two sides decided to extend the validity of the acquisition until April 22 next year.
US telecom giant AT&T 's $85 billion acquisition of global television and media giant time Warner Group faces opposition from the US government. According to the latest news from foreign media, AT&T and time Warner announced a few days ago that the validity of the acquisition will be postponed to April next year.
according to a number of foreign media reports, the validity period of the acquisition offer put forward by AT&T last year will expire, so the two sides decided to extend the validity period of the acquisition deal to April 22 next year.
Last October, AT&T announced that it would buy time Warner Group for $85 billion, but the deal cannot be completed today, and factors such as antitrust concerns are becoming a reality.
before that, the US Department of Justice had filed a complaint explicitly opposing AT&T 's acquisition of time Warner Group.
it is reported that the Justice Department has negotiated with AT&T to modify the acquisition plan or divest time Warner Group's CNN TV station (the parent company is Turner Broadcasting). Or divest DirecTV, one of AT&T 's two existing satellite television companies.
however, AT&T says it has no plans to divest any assets, especially the globally influential CNN television station.
it is reported that consumers, media companies, and the telecommunications industry in the United States are generally worried that the acquisition of time Warner Group's AT&T will create an industry monopoly and harm the interests of peers and consumers. For example, AT&T may restrict the content of time Warner's important TV programs to competitors' subscribers and encourage users of other operators to transfer to AT&T.
in addition, the US cable or satellite TV industry is also worried that there may be an increase in viewing fees after some well-known TV channels belong to AT&T.
AT&T is one of the two telecom giants in the United States, providing services from broadband, mobile communications, live television, fixed-line communications and other services, and has entered the satellite TV market through the acquisition of DirecTV. Before
, US President Trump also made it clear that he opposed the acquisition plan, saying that the size of the combined new company would lead to an increase in consumers' cable TV bills.
however, it should be pointed out that this acquisition has also cast a political shadow. The main reason is that from the campaign to the present, the relationship between US President Trump and CNN is very bad. Trump has repeatedly criticized CNN for releasing fake news, and CNN is also tit-for-tat. There are voices that the US government opposes AT&T 's acquisition of time Warner Group and has the will of the White House.
with the competitive incentives of the US telecom industry and the decline of profit margins, the telecom industry has set off a wave of mergers and acquisitions, mainly for operators to acquire media content companies one after another, and take advertising revenue as a breakthrough direction.
before AT&T, Verizon, another American telecom giant, bought two established portals, AOL and Yahoo, for $9 billion, and the two companies have been integrated into a new company.
it is reported that Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox is also preparing to transfer its film and television business, which has also attracted some telecom companies to participate in the bidding.
Edit: mary