AT&T and Time Warner Inc. have made their rumored merger official, with AT&T to purchase the media company for $85.4 billion in cash and stock. Time Warner Inc. has been completely separate from its former subsidiary, Time Warner Cable (now owned by Charter), since 2009. "AT&T and Time Warner are currently determining which FCC licenses, if any, will be transferred to AT&T in connection with the transaction," AT&T said. AT&T could favor Time Warner video on its own networks by letting it stream without counting against the data caps applied to video services like Netflix. AT&T could also harm online video services that compete against DirecTV by charging higher prices for content or refusing to license videos.

Source: CNN October 23, 2016 02:08 UTC