Transform Tuesday — The Streamland “Cagematch” Escalates: On AT&T / TimeWarner
It looks like with roughly a week to spare, the AT&T and Time Warner $80+ B USD merger may proceed, after an 18+ month journey since October 2016, bringing together a network with a content platform. It almost feels like a callback to the last time Time Warner was making headlines for a merger, nearly a generation ago, for AOL Time Warner, which was the deal-maker top-tick of Internet 1.0. Now with broadband capacity considerably expanded, along with an precambrian explosion in content, this is more like the beginning bookend for a series of deals to come in Streamland.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson jacked up the company, refusing to divest assets, while Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes took his company to a fat farm and gave it a face lift, shedding some weight via divestment and will be ready to give away the bride to the corporate embrace of AT&T.
A few weeks ago, I did a piece on Netflix and quoted Professor Scott Galloway’s apt “cagematch” imagery for all the sharp-elbows about to come between old and new media behemoths ready to fight for more assets and expanded digital footprints. An AT&T Time Warner deal could blow the doors open. From WSJ: “U.S. District Judge Richard Leon told a packed courtroom that the department hadn’t proved its case that the deal would suppress competition in the pay-TV industry. At one point waving his 172-page opinion in the air, Judge Leon declared: “The court has now spoken and the defendants have won.” It should be interesting to see if Comcast and Disney battle each other in merger Godzilla vs. King Kong style over Fox 21st Century.
VERTICAL INTEGRATION. Learn it, love it, and get ready to live it. Oh by the way, net neutrality ended as of June 11, just the other day.
For the moment, let’s content ourselves with a press release from AT&T:
“Does AT&T favor certain websites or internet applications by blocking, throttling, or modifying particular protocols on its broadband internet access service?
No, AT&T does not favor certain websites or internet applications by blocking or throttling lawful internet traffic on the basis of content, application, service, user, or use of nonharmful devices on its broadband internet access services. Nor do we modify particular protocols, protocol ports, or protocol fields in ways not prescribed by the protocol standards. However, in response to a specific security threat against our network or our customers, AT&T may occasionally need to limit the flow of traffic from certain locations or take other appropriate actions.”
Originally published at big-stack.com on June 13, 2018.
