Phantom Roxas Posted November 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2018 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/06/eu-approves-disney-buy-of-fox-if-it-makes-tv-divestments.html The European Commission has approved Disney's acquisition of Fox, pending the divestment of Disney's interests in Europe's A&E channels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted November 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2018 This is entirely speculation, but one of the possible outcomes of the appeal against AT&T is that WarnerMedia may have to divest their Turner assets. This was one of the structural remedies the DOJ initially proposed, and that seems to be something they're still pursuing if the appeal is successful. It's important to note that it's specifically Turner that owns the remaining 10% ownership of Hulu. While it's a minority stake, I could very well see Comcast and Disney trying to obtain that stake. Turner also owns the broadcast rights to Star Wars, and Disney would love nothing more than to get those back. It's a long shot, but I would not put it past Disney to try to acquire Turner if AT&T is forced to divest it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathanael D. Striker Posted November 10, 2018 Report Share Posted November 10, 2018 When you put it like that, Disney acquiring Turner makes sense to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted November 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2018 I should probably add that Disney likely would not be able to acquire Turner as a whole. The best way to look at it is how the Disney/Fox and AT&T/Time Warner mergers contrasted. The DOJ wanted AT&T to divest Turner, and was more willing to approve the Disney/Fox merger because they saw the divestiture of certain Fox assets as the sort of remedy that AT&T and Time Warner should have been willing to agree to. The best example is that just as Fox is having to spin Fox News off as a part of "New Fox", Turner would likely have to divest CNN and similar assets. So a possible Disney/Turner merger might require Turner to be split up, with assets that would grant Disney the Hulu stake and the Star Wars rights, while the rest would be the remainder of Turner. Though I believe that would mean Disney would be getting relatively less of what they're getting from Fox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted November 20, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/19/disney-gets-approval-from-china-for-its-fox-acquisition-sending-shares-of-both-companies-up.html China has unconditionally approved the Disney/Fox merger. Other countries still need to approve it, but this does cover one of the last major hurdles, so the merger is expected to close early in spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted November 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2018 https://nypost.com/2018/11/18/the-cbs-viacom-merger-could-be-a-few-months-away-insiders/ A CBS-Viacom reunion is looking more likely for next year, and could also have Take-Two thrown into the mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted December 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-at-t-outlook/att-commits-to-cutting-up-to-20-billion-in-debt-in-2019-idUSKCN1NY2Q1https://qz.com/1480860/att-may-sell-its-stake-in-hulu-allowing-disney-to-buy-more-control/ Hulu is really the asset that ties a lot of these mergers together. AT&T is $180B in debt, and they're looking to pay off $20B of that debt next year by selling some non-essential assets. As I said, Disney would desperately want that Hulu stake, and it seems that AT&T would be all too happy to get rid of it. Seems like the same situation Comcast is in, where they will likewise have to sell their Hulu stake to pay off some debt after the Sky deal. Disney has already worked to pay off some of their debt for Fox by selling the Sky stake to Comcast, so Disney should have more than enough capital to bail out AT&T and Comcast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted December 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2018 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-05/in-at-t-merger-appeal-u-s-has-a-message-we-told-you-so The appeal against the AT&T/Warner merger begins tomorrow. Fairly excited for this, especially since Richard Leon's argument was that he would need a crystal ball to predict what could happen. Now we know for a fact what happened, so it's time to punish AT&T for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted December 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2018 https://variety.com/2018/biz/features/variety-film-tv-music-predictions-2019-1203087313/https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/sony-tamara-hunter-apple-1203087959/https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/fast-franchise-director-justin-lin-leaves-sony-for-apple.html There's a few weird stories here. First, Variety predicts that Apple will buy Sony. I've brought this up before, and while it is just a prediction, there seems to be some basis for this, with both Tamara Hunter and Justin Lin moving from Sony to Apple. It may just be a coincidence, but all of the pieces seem too convenient to believe it's just that. I could see Apple hiring some of these personnel so that Sony Pictures would be gradually eased into Apple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathanael D. Striker Posted February 26, 2019 Report Share Posted February 26, 2019 CNN: Appeals court backs AT&T acquisition of Time Warner.https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/26/media/att-time-warner-merger-ruling/index.html Unless another Appeal happens, looks like the AT&T/Warner Saga is all wrapped up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryusei the Morning Star Posted February 27, 2019 Report Share Posted February 27, 2019 I hope they appeal it, I want the Supremes to rule on the matter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted February 27, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2019 Same, the Supreme Court needs to rule on this. However, the DOJ really needs to step up their game on this. Richard Leon's ruling was that he could not predict how the merger would turn out. While I think the DOJ was correct in predicting AT&T's behavior, ultimately they were asking the judge to rule on how they think AT&T might act, not how they have actually acted. If it goes to the full appeals court or even the Supreme Court, the DOJ needs to make their case about what AT&T has done since the merger went through. Make the case about why the merger should be broken up now, not about the theories against why it shouldn't have happened in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathanael D. Striker Posted February 27, 2019 Report Share Posted February 27, 2019 Well, it seems the DoJ have no plans to appeal (the article mentions that), so game over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted February 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2019 Disappointed, but not surprising. The merger has long since been properly integrated that I can't see the DOJ doing much to change anything anyway. https://deadline.com/2019/02/hulu-stake-among-items-under-review-at-att-as-warnermedia-legal-clouds-part-1202566686/ The possibility of Disney acquiring AT&T's 10% stake in Hulu has come up before, and it seems that with this appeal over, AT&T can focus more on reducing its debt, and selling that stake would help to do just that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted March 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2019 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house This article largely focuses on how Fox News has operated as a propaganda machine for the current administration, but it does bring up that former chief economic advisor Gary Cohn was in fact ordered by Trump to oppose the AT&T/Time Warner merger. While the merger did need to be opposed, this continues to make the case that the DOJ was acting under Trump's bad faith, and for him to make this demand constitutes an impeachable offense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathanael D. Striker Posted March 12, 2019 Report Share Posted March 12, 2019 CNN: Disney says its Fox takeover will take effect on March 20.https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/12/media/disney-fox-deal/index.html Mark your calendars, folks. Disney is about to get a taste of what rests in the dark of the night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted April 27, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2019 https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/15/att-sells-hulu-stake-valuing-company-at-15-billion.htmlhttps://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-hulu-disney-comcast-20190425-story.html This thread has lagged behind a bit, but let's stick with the regular companies of this thread. Hulu has repurchased AT&T's minority stake in the service, and Disney and Comcast are having talks about Comcast selling its own stake. I've been expecting for a while, but looks like we're indeed getting close to Disney fully acquiring Hulu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted May 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2019 https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/disney-full-control-hulu-comcast-deal-1203214338/ Disney and Comcast have struck a deal where Comcast can retain a 33% ownership of Hulu, but Disney will still purchase Comcast's stake over the next five years, and as such, Disney now has full operational control of Hulu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Roxas Posted July 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 https://www.cnet.com/news/t-mobile-and-sprint-deal-wins-justice-department-ok-thanks-to-dish/ Sprint and T-Mobile's merger will be going forward, on the condition that Sprint sells some of its wireless spectrum and prepaid brands to Dish, to allow Dish to take Sprint's place as the fourth largest wireless carrier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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