ABC Inc, Time Warner to merge

Comments

• Anonus

  2014-12-01 23:46:50

  I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat

  FROM THE ARCHIVES:

  
  

  Outbidding Murdoch, ABC Inc Pays Just Over $78 Billion for Time Warner

  
  

  July 16, 2014

  
  

  NEW YORK CITY - Jeffrey L. Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, has thrown in the towel and accepted ABC Inc CEO-Chairman Anonus Utilis's offer for the company. ABC will pay $92 per share - topping Murdoch's $85 cash-and-stock offer - in an all-cash deal valuing the company at more than $78 billion - the largest all-cash buyout in history.

  
  

  Under the terms of the deal, Time Warner will cease to exist, and ABC Inc will take the name "ABC Warner". Bewkes will depart, and Utilis will be the company's CEO and Chairman. The company will be headquartered in Denver, and not New York City. The two companies have several overlapping divisions, though in the cases of ABC Cable Networks and Turner Broadcasting, ABC Cable Networks is expected to be absorbed into Turner. The fate of Columbia Pictures, which ABC purchased last month, is unknown, though it is expected to be divested.

  
  

  News of the deal comes a day after Murdoch agreed to sell 21st Century Fox - the vehicle he intended to use to purchase Time Warner - to the Walt Disney Company. Disney and ABC have already been drivers of consolidation in the media business, as Disney has made high-profile acquisitions like Marvel, Lucasfilm and Maker Studios, while since being divested by Disney, ABC has embarked on a buying spree of its own, which has included Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment (which the company acquired simultaneously and then combined), and AMC Networks. But it's unclear how much more consolidation will be coming to the media business - the impending disappearance of two large players brings the number down from seven to five, and there likely isn't much more room for others to expand.

  
  

  Attracting Utilis to Time Warner is the company's stable of cable networks, which includes HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network, along with its portfolio of well-known family entertainment characters, which include Bugs Bunny, Superman, Batman, the Flintstones, and Scooby-Doo. Utilis has long wanted to be one of the "big guys," and it looks like now is his chance.

  
  

  "Personally, I'm glad to be done," said Bewkes. "He hit the sweet spot. I hate running a huge conglomerate."

  
  

  Utilis could not be reached for comment. A spokesperson for ABC Inc said that he had fainted out of excitement just before we attempted to contact him.