Latest in Merger

UPDATED with closing prices and additional details: Shares in Viacom and CBS both declined more than 8% Wednesday as investors absorbed the details of the companies’ long-awaited merger during a broader stock market retreat. CBS stock closed at $44.62, 8% lower, and Viacom at $26.72, down 8.5%. Worries about weak…

In a long-expected settlement, the Department of Justice has agreed to approve the $26 billion merger of No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. telecom providers T-Mobile and Sprint. As a condition of the approval, the combined entity has agreed to sell Sprint's Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Sprint-branded prepaid mobile services to D…

The attorneys general of seven states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, alleging that the $26.5 billion deal would harm consumers. New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the suit Tuesday…

The White House has declined a request by two House Democrats for documents that could show whether President Donald Trump tried to block AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in a letter dated Monday to Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and antitrust subcommittee…

UPDATED with official comment from the companies. At special meetings held simultaneously in New York this morning, Disney and 21st Century Fox shareholders overwhelmingly approved the merger first proposed last December. Disney said 99% of shareholders approved the company’s acquisition of Fox assets, a historic…

When AT&T first announced its intentions to acquire Time Warner back in October 2016, talk about premium-video-on-demand was all the rage. The format, which each studio had different pitches on, essentially called for streaming movies in the home roughly 17 days after their theatrical release at a price between…

Mere minutes after a federal judge today gave Donald Trump's Department of Justice a very public defeat and granted an unconditional OK to the $85 billion dollar marriage of AT&T and Time Warner, the conglomerate responded with circumspect joy. "We are pleased that, after conducting a full and fair trial on the…

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., today cleared the way for the planned merger of AT&T and Time Warner in a landmark antitrust ruling that will likely accelerate the pace of media consolidation. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon accepted the survival-of-the-fittest argument AT&T and Time Warner executives made…

As they look to close their industry-altering deal, 21st Century Fox and the Walt Disney Co. have each set July 10 meetings for their shareholders to vote on Disney’s proposed $52.4B acquisition of Fox assets. In their separate SEC filings, the companies said their respective boards recommend that stockholders vote in…

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson called the hiring of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, damaging to the company’s reputation and a “big mistake.” Stephenson made the admission in a memo circulated to employees on Friday, which announced that AT&T's lead lobbyist, Bob Quinn, who oversaw the hiring of…

In a deal with broad implications for media and technology sectors, wireless carriers T-Mobile and Sprint have announced a $26 billion all-stock merger that creates a bulked-up rival to AT&T and Verizon. The deal caps several years of starts and stops by the two companies, which last November had abandoned their…

The judge’s decision can’t come quickly enough. Time Warner followed AT&T’s lackluster first quarter earnings report yesterday with a mixed-bag announcement of its own this morning. Revenues for the period increased 3% to $8 billion on growth at Turner and HBO, partially offset by a decline at Warner Bros. Operating…