A look at the chequered pasts and Homeric odysseys of American media giants Time Warner and AT&T, told in the story of mergers, leading to their own merger deal last week.
Another indictment of media deregulation, or just big ships taking forever to turn around?
Because merging with web companies hasn’t bade well for Warner before…
H/T: The Verge
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1. Deregulation 2. Initially loosening of market due to competition, everyone is winner for a short period. 3. Owners slowly detach from reality, believe their own hype and lose the run of themselves all the way to inevitable and 100% predictable market cannibalisation
4. Nationalisation and Tax Payer Saps Bail them out.
Simples.
AT&T isn’t a “web” company
Actually, AT&T’s existence today is down to regulations. In the early 1980’s the original American Telephone & Telegraph company was broken up into 7 regional operators (Baby Bells) on foot of Anti-Trust regulations. Verizon is also another Baby Bell.
Most of the others have been acquired by Verizon or AT&T over the years.
Doubt this merger goes through with a Democratic President and Senate after the election.
Of course, if she loses like Broadsheet wants her to…