Apple 'Monitoring' AT&T's Potential Time Warner Acquisition

[MacRumors]

Amid rumors suggesting AT&T is considering purchasing Time Warner, the parent company of networks like CNN and HBO, The Wall Street Journal says Apple is keeping a close eye on the situation as it would have a major impact on the television industry and could potentially impact future television deals Apple might make with the two companies.

Apple at one time was reportedly in talks with Time Warner about a potential streaming television deal and has been rumored to have been interested in purchasing Time Warner assets at one time, but negotiations stalled and the two companies are no longer holding talks.

Apple Inc. a few months ago approached Time Warner Inc. about pursuing a combination, but the discussions didn't progress beyond a preliminary stage and none are currently under way, people familiar with the matter said Friday. [...]

From Apple's end, executives under Chief Executive Tim Cook were involved in the earlier talks, and now Apple is monitoring the current situation, one of the people said

Time Warner owns a huge number of assets that could have serve as the foundation of a streaming television service should Apple have struck a deal with the company. Networks like CNN, HBO, TBS, TNT, NBA TV, Cartoon Network, and Warner Bros. are all under Time Warner's umbrella, but with AT&T and Time Warner in "advanced talks" it seems unlikely Apple will do more than "monitor" the situation.

A deal between AT&T and Time Warner could be finalized as early as this weekend, but The Wall Street Journal suggests "a host of other contenders" could offer deals for Time Warner, putting an end to the AT&T acquisition.

Last year, Apple was pursuing a streaming television service that would allow it to offer a skinny bundle of channels from popular networks and cable companies for approximately $40 per month, but it wasn't able to establish the necessary deals and shelved its plans.

Apple is instead leveraging the Apple TV set-top box as a platform that allows cable companies and other content providers to offer television shows and apps through an Apple-designed interface and user experience.

Just this week, Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue said that television "needs to be reinvented" and called existing television interfaces "pretty brain dead."

Article Link: Apple 'Monitoring' AT&T's Potential Time Warner Acquisition

 

[nagromme]

Imagine AT&T DSL customer service crossed with Time-Warner's. Compare that grisly vision with Apple customer service.

Apple's worried that their call centers will get flooded with gift baskets and gorillagrams if this comes to pass.

 

[Cineplex]

Tim's Office:

Secretary: Tim, The Wall Street Journal is on the phone.
Tim: Okay.... (answers phone)
WSJ Guy: Tim are you watching this AT&T Time Warner thing????
Tim: Yes. I have CNN on right now in fact. Why?
WSJ Guy hangs up.

Five Minutes Later WSJ reports Apple "monitoring the situation"

 

[rjohnstone]

Imagine AT&T DSL customer service crossed with Time-Warner's. Compare that grisly vision with Apple customer service.

Apple's worried that their call centers will get flooded with gift baskets and gorillagrams if this comes to pass.

AT&T isn't buying TWC, so why would their DSL division be involved?

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Yes, that would be an excellent acquisition, so those that dislike Apple can dislike them more.
Those that respect them can respect them less.

 

[needfx]

are they monitoring the situation on an apple tv?

 

[2010mini]

AT&T owns Direct TV. If this goes through it will be another Comcast/NBC Universal travesty all over again.

 

[CarlJ]

Not looking forward to the eventual future where there is one giant company that owns all video/music/etc., and another giant company that owns all the network connections to every home in the country (even worse if this is one company rather than two). Wouldn't mind seeing a few enforced breakups like what was done with Ma Bell back in the day, to better serve the public's needs (plus Ma Bell charged a lot, but at least everything worked).

 

[VulchR]

Oh look, more people making money by buying and selling companies rather than producing something. I wonder what all those people will do when there is only one company.

 

[citi]

Apple really should consider buying TWC.

 

[m.x]

If Mr. Cue could go to meetings on time, while being dressed appropriate and behaving a little more polite, Apple wouldn't need to monitor this deal for future deals

 

[nagromme]

AT&T isn't buying TWC, so why would their DSL division be involved?

Don't take it too literally: I was commenting on the quality of customer service more than on the department being involved in the decision.

(I single out DSL customer service because my WORST AT&T experiences have been with those folks. They occupy the same special place in my heart as TW and my insurance company.)

P.S. Before anyone accuses me of having rabid anti-AT&T and anti-TW bias, let me clear the air: I have rabid anti-AT&T and anti-TW bias. And must pay them both every month

 

[jdillings]

Apple would be wise to make a bid. If they don't, they'll be left behind as streaming is the future and content will reign supreme. The majority of people don't care if their box is a Apple TV, Roku, or Fire TV. They care about the content. Yes, they can license content but the content will be owned by their direct competitors who will not offer it at fair rates. We are seeing the same sort of moment that we saw when companies like Microsoft and Intel didn't take mobile seriously and got left behind.

 

[jayducharme]

Apple really should consider buying TWC.

They already offer the Weather Channel app, so that's probably good enough.

Apple certainly has the money to buy Time Warner if they want to. But that would create a multi-headed monster that Cook probably has no interest in taking on. Apple prides itself on focus. A media company isn't in line with Apple's primary mission. I think they'd prefer striking content deals (as they do with the music industry) rather than actually owning a media company.

 

[joec1101]

OK, I'm a little confused. Spectrum just bought Time Warner and Charter, so is TWC for sale again? WTF

 

[Rogifan]

Apple is monitoring the situation? Why is that news and why should we care?

 

[RedWing512]

God, so many idiots on this thread.

The deal is for Time Warner, NOT Time Warner Cable. Time Warner is the parent company for the aforementioned TV networks, they have nothing to do with the cable provider.

 

[0958400]

Hey Apple, here's something to "monitor": Apple pro-users being annoyed by Apple's current focus.

 

[jdillings]

Not looking forward to the eventual future where there is one giant company that owns all video/music/etc., and another giant company that owns all the network connections to every home in the country (even worse if this is one company rather than two). Wouldn't mind seeing a few enforced breakups like what was done with Ma Bell back in the day, to better serve the public's needs (plus Ma Bell charged a lot, but at least everything worked).

I agree. This merger is following the NBC Universal/Comcast playbook where they will own the content and the network connections. This allows them to do unfair things like excluding the channels/services they own from their customer's data caps while at the same time having their competitor's channels/services count against their customer's data caps. Obama allowing the NBC Universal/Comcast merger set a very dangerous precedent as we are now seeing.

 

[Count Blah]

Content providers are digging a hole for themselves. I'm watching less and less, because they make it harder and harder to watch the couple of things I would like to watch.

So their miserly approach is paying off, I give up on seeking out a lot of potentially really good things.

In the end, they lose me as a potential customer, yet I really don't feel very deprived. From talking to a lot of other folks, this approach is really catching on - MegaCorp can go screw.

 

[now i see it]

I'm monitoring this thread closely

 

[thadoggfather]

What kinda monitoring are we talking about here, NSA monitoring?

Are they gonna just sit on the sidelines while it wraps up, what good does monitoring do? Can major corporations stop absorbing each other for a little, on a related but different note, dang.

 

[Cartoonkid]

OK, I'm a little confused. Spectrum just bought Time Warner and Charter, so is TWC for sale again? WTF

Time Warner (content provider) is not the same as Time Warner Cable/Spectrum (ISP).

 

[jca24]

God, so many idiots on this thread.

The deal is for Time Warner, NOT Time Warner Cable. Time Warner is the parent company for the aforementioned TV networks, they have nothing to do with the cable provider.

correct, tw cable was spun off in 2009, now owned by charter (spectrum).
[doublepost=1477087475][/doublepost]

Not looking forward to the eventual future where there is one giant company that owns all video/music/etc., and another giant company that owns all the network connections to every home in the country (even worse if this is one company rather than two). Wouldn't mind seeing a few enforced breakups like what was done with Ma Bell back in the day, to better serve the public's needs (plus Ma Bell charged a lot, but at least everything worked).

correct, it will eventually end up this way, then the govt will take over just like everything else. hiliary would love this as does little o. vote TRUMP

 

[Cartoonkid]

Apple would be wise to make a bid. If they don't, they'll be left behind as streaming is the future and content will reign supreme. The majority of people don't care if their box is a Apple TV, Roku, or Fire TV. They care about the content. Yes, they can license content but the content will be owned by their direct competitors who will not offer it at fair rates. We are seeing the same sort of moment that we saw when companies like Microsoft and Intel didn't take mobile seriously and got left behind.

The problem is, Apple has no experience in the industry, so I can't imagine how they would make it work.

And if they did, god forbid they lose focus on the Mac line again and everybody around here loses their s**t again.