Senior executives at AT&T and Time Warner met in recent weeks to discuss various business strategies, reports Bloomberg. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet says that the talks are informal at this point, and neither side has hired a financial adviser, but the discussions have included the possibility of a merger.
Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes is a willing seller, said one of the people, if he gets an offer he thinks is fair. Bewkes and his board rejected an $85-a-share approach in 2014 from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc., which valued Time Warner at more than $75 billion.
AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson is looking to add more content and original programming to his Dallas-based telecommunications company, said another person familiar with the matter.
It’s unknown what type of deal was discussed, but Time Warner’s current value is around $67 billion, and it turned down an acquisition bid in 2014 for more than $75 billion. Should AT&T manage to reach an agreement with the multimedia conglomerate, it would eclipse last year’s Direct TV deal and be the largest in a decade.
Source: Bloomberg