American multinational telecommunications, AT&T has reached a $85bn mega-deal to buy Time Warner.
The deal sees the tech giant taking charge of Time Warner (TWX); owners of CNN, HBO, TNT, the Warner Bros. studio, and other channels and websites.
The deal announced on Saturday evening is subject to a review by government regulators that could take more than a year to complete.
AT&T will pay $107.50 a share – a big premium over where Time Warner stock was trading last week. Including Time Warner’s debt, the deal’s value is $109 billion.
In a joint conference call with the media Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said both companies began talks since August. The two met in New York for a “periodic check-in … and the more we talked, the more the deal fell in place,” Bewkes said.
“We have a very common view of the world,” Stephenson added. “This thing just had what we called gravity. We started negotiating terms very quickly.”
Dolapo is a writer and journalist who works with YNaija. He has interests in Christianity, politics and sports.
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