In the hours since Texas-based AT&T announced plans to buy Time Warner, everyone’s been focused on the consumer implications: could this hurt consumer choice and raise prices?
The deal is valued at more than $100 billion. What could this mean for Texas, given that this is the state’s biggest company that isn’t an oil company? The implications may go way beyond the price for streaming Game of Thrones in Waxahachie.
Mitchell Schnurman, a business columnist for the Dallas Morning News, says one of the biggest questions about the merger is how the two companies’ cultures will mesh.
“AT&T’s culture is really technology-based. The Time Warner folks are over on the creative side,” Schnurman says. “One analyst told me it was like the right-brain, left-brain types. In order to maintain that creative spark and not chase off those content creators, they’re going to have to give them a lot of independence, just like they have now.”
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– How this deal will impact the job market
– What challenges AT&T will face if it acquires CNN
– How the deal would make AT&T a mega-company (hint: It wouldn’t be the first time)