Verizon, Comcast Looking at Fox?

Yesterday a new rumor hit the markets involving big telecom/cable buying media assets.  Supposedly, both Verizon and Comcast have been talking to Twenty-First Century Fox about acquiring TV and movie related assets.

Something about the timing here seems fishy to me.  With the DOJ and AT&T facing off over the proposed AT&T/Time Warner merger and regulators’ objections to AT&T owning the assets that were the whole point of the deal in the first place, suddenly AT&T’s rivals are making noise about going down the same path?  I can’t think of a better way to permanently kill the deal than to threaten to replicate it several more times.

Perhaps I’m being overly paranoid.  Yet, the past several years in the world of media have seemed more like a cartoon than reality, and if we were to see Verizon and Comcast each buy itself a movie/TV studio in 2018 it would fit right in.  I find myself believing less and less the underlying story of how media and telecom will inevitably merge and make piles of money.

AT&T continues to expect to close its purchase of Time Warner, but I wonder if some there aren’t secretly pleased that regulatory hurdles may kill the deal.  It seems to me that getting 5G and IoT and other new technologies right and turning them into the next wave of cash flow is a big enough task for any organization.

 

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Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions · Wireless