A federal judge on Tuesday approved the blockbuster merger between AT&T and Time Warner, rebuffing the government’s effort to block the $85.4 billion (U.S.) deal, in a decision that is expected to unleash a wave of takeovers in corporate America. That led to the Justice Department’s lawsuit, filed in November.
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Comcast is widely expected to bid within days for part of 21st Century Fox.
The deal, if approved, would merge Comcast-owned Universal Studios and the NBC television network with Hollywood rival 20th Century Fox, Fox’s cable entertainment networks and worldwide TV businesses.
And the deal would come with Fox’s stake in Hulu, the streaming service with 20 million viewers. For example, Comcast is reportedly eager to gobble up some of 21st Century Fox’s assets.
Like many media cable and media companies, Comcast has two classes of stock that vest extraordinary voting rights on its founding family. The Wall Street Journal reported similar thinking earlier Wednesday.
Both those companies eventually want all of Sky. Disney previously agreed to pay $US52.4 billion ($69 billion) for the media company, and that offer was entirely in stock. Comcast is bidding independently for the same stake, leaving Sky’s fate uncertain. That price tops a standing offer Fox already has on the table from Disney.
21st Century Fox originally rejected the $60 billion Comcast offer due to concerns that the federal government might block such a deal.
Schwantes says more media mega-deals could be coming soon. Those will be spun off into a new company.
Under Comcast’s new proposal, 21CF shareholders would receive $35 per share in cash and 100% of the shares of “New Fox”, which would comprise Fox Broadcasting and its TV station group, plus Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network and the Fox Sports group.
When the FCC repealed net neutrality past year, its chairman, Ajit Pai, argued that companies such as Comcast weren’t investing in broadband deployment because of uncertainty caused by regulations.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has repeatedly denied to comment on the deal itself, citing the ongoing regulatory process, but has expressed excitement about his company’s plan for how to integrate the assets.
“Judge OKs AT&T merger with Time Warner, rejecting government argument it would hurt pay-TV consumers, competition”.
Fox in a statement said it had received the proposal and would review it.
Roberts is known as a tenacious dealmaker.
“It’s not creating this ginormous behemoth that’s going to take over everything”, Gerzof Richard said last night.
“We are highly confident in our ability to finance the transaction, and our offer includes no financing-related conditions”, Roberts said.
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Comcast has suggested that it would make some concessions if necessary. The question is will Disney’s board and management go to the mat on this transaction? Comcast also said it would reimburse the money Fox would owe Disney for terminating that deal. But AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson remained at the company’s headquarters in Dallas, and he learned of the ruling when AT&T general counsel David McAtee called him, a spokesperson said. “However, based on our merger models, we think bids from CMCSA or DIS could reach as high as $80 billion”.
