Local newsers, take notice: Time Warner and Time Warner Cable are two different entities.
With news today that AT&T is on the verge of acquiring Time Warner for $80 billion, a few local news stations, including KMBC, WNBC and News 12 Long Island, confused Time Warner and Time Warner Cable, which split in two in 2008.
Adding further confusion, WNBC reported, “Comcast dropped its bid for Time Warner last year after pushback from the feds over whether the merger would give the company too much control over the U.S. cable and broad band markets.”
But that’s not true. Comcast dropped its bid for Time Warner Cable, not Time Warner. Charter Communications ended up acquiring the cable company, and has since retired the Time Warner Cable brand.
If AT&T is successful in its bid, the Time Warner brand would also likely be retired with entities like Warner Bros., Turner (including cable channels CNN, TBS, TNT and others) and HBO becoming operating companies of AT&T, possibly part of the AT&T Entertainment Group.
Update: The $85.4 billion deal was announced Saturday night. AT&T ceo Randall Stephenson and Time Warner ceo Jeff Bewkes say Time Warner will operate as a subsidiary of AT&T and that Bewkes plans to stay on for “at least a year or two” after the deal closes, which will take about a year.