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“Apple Inc. a few months ago approached Time Warner about pursuing a combination, and though the discussions didn’t progress beyond a preliminary stage, Apple is now monitoring the situation, people familiar with the matter said Friday,” Shalini Ramachandran, Dana Mattioli and Keach Hagey report for The Wall Street Journal. “AT&T is now in advanced talks to purchase Time Warner, The Wall Street Journal has reported, and a deal could come together within days.”
“The talks for Time Warner suggest there is a greater merger dance occurring in the media industry as conglomerates, telecom companies and tech giants try to stake their claim on the future,” Ramachandran, Mattioli and Hagey report. “A host of other contenders could jump into the fray for Time Warner and scuttle the planned deal, media executives and analysts say.”
“Time Warner is viewed as perhaps the most attractive stand-alone media asset, given its premium content brands—which include HBO, CNN and Warner Bros.–and the fact it doesn’t have a controlling shareholder,” Ramachandran, Mattioli and Hagey report. “From Apple’s end, executives under Chief Executive Tim Cook were involved in the earlier talks. Apple has pursued plans to build an online TV service and has begun creating original programming of its own. Before its most recent approach, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, brought up a potential combination in a meeting with Time Warner’s head of corporate strategy Olaf Olafsson last year, the people said, though the talks never went further than that.”
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