AT&T Buys Time Warner for $85 Billion

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

AT&T has reached a deal to acquire Time Warner for more than $85 billion, a blockbuster deal that fuses a mobile giant with an entertainment conglomerate, carrying with it the potential to reshape the media landscape.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the deal. The two companies on Saturday jointly announced the deal, unanimously approved by both boards, that will see the mobile company pay $107.50 per share in a cash and stock transaction. The deal represents a marriage of Time Warner's limitless movie and television empire with AT&T's 315 million wireless subscribers.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/t-reaches-deal-buy-time-warner-more-80b-sources-n671226?cid=sm_fb

Just what we need... I don't like it.

[RazorStar 4,025]

Well we're heading towards a point where everything is going to be run a few omni-corporations. May as well speed up the process.

[blotsfan 2,112]

Given that AT&T also just bought DirectTv, I think the government will block this just like when they tried to get Comcast.

[seanbrock 1,684]

Given that AT&T also just bought DirectTv, I think the government will block this just like when they tried to get Comcast.

I certainly hope so.

[Sparty 110]

Black and Decker just bought out a couple companies, too. Monopolies aren't illegal anymore apparently.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Sparty

[Sarge+ 3,436]

Black and Decker just bought out a couple companies, too. Monopolies aren't illegal anymore apparently.

 

Monopolies are only truly illegal when they are inconvenient for or in direct competition with the government.

[Zack_of_Steel+ 3,014]

I hate this game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Life)

[blotsfan 2,112]

So I didn't realize time warner and time warner cable are no longer connected, with the latter not being involved in this deal. It seems more likely to be approved, but not as bad as it sounded.

[Zack_of_Steel+ 3,014]

AT&T Is Spying on Americans for Profit, New Documents Reveal

The telecom giant is doing NSA-style work for law enforcement—without a warrant—and earning millions of dollars a year from taxpayers.

Kenneth Lipp

10.25.16 12:13 AM ET

 

Hemisphere is a secretive program run by AT&T that searches trillions of call records and analyzes cellular data to determine where a target is located, with whom he speaks, and potentially why.

 

...

 

In 2013, Hemisphere was revealed by The New York Times and described only within a Powerpoint presentation made by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Times described it as a “partnership” between AT&T and the U.S. government; the Justice Department said it was an essential, and prudently deployed, counter-narcotics tool.

 

However, AT&T’s own documentation—reported here by The Daily Beast for the first time—shows Hemisphere was used far beyond the war on drugs to include everything from investigations of homicide to Medicaid fraud.

 

Hemisphere isn’t a “partnership” but rather a product AT&T developed, marketed, and sold at a cost of millions of dollars per year to taxpayers. No warrant is required to make use of the company’s massive trove of data, according to AT&T documents, only a promise from law enforcement to not disclose Hemisphere if an investigation using it becomes public.

 

...

 

AT&T stores details for every call, text message, Skype chat, or other communication that has passed through its infrastructure, retaining many records dating back to 1987, according to the Times 2013 Hemisphere report. The scope and length of the collection has accumulated trillions of records and is believed to be larger than any phone record database collected by the NSA under the Patriot Act, the Times reported.

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/25/at-t-is-spying-on-americans-for-profit.html

Edited October 25, 2016 by Zack_of_Steel

[blotsfan 2,112]

I'm not saying its right, I'm not saying they shouldn't be punished.

 

But at this point, you have to assume every single thing you do online is going to be logged somewhere. Because I promise you, AT&T is not the only company (or entity in general) to be doing this. Having any other mindset is just foolish at this point.

[Bucman 891]

They not gonna find anything besides my love for quadriplegic midget porn

[Zack_of_Steel+ 3,014]

"It's been happening forever, who cares that one is doing far worse than the others? I'm fine with the status quo."

 

Same logic being applied to the presidential race.