AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner is complete

After a judge ruled in favor of the acquisition, AT&T has officially swallowed up Time Warner. Now Warner Bros., HBO and Turner are a part of the company’s as-yet-unnamed media business, which is one of four segments:

• AT&T Communications provides mobile, broadband, video and other communications services to U.S.-based consumers and nearly 3.5 million companies – from the smallest business to nearly all the Fortune 1000 – with highly secure, smart solutions. Revenues from these services totaled more than $150 billion in 2017.
• AT&T’s media business consists of HBO, Turner and Warner Bros. Together, these businesses had revenues of more than $31 billion in 2017. A new name for this business will be announced later.
• AT&T International provides mobile services in Mexico to consumers and businesses, plus pay-TV service across 11 countries in South America and the Caribbean. It had revenues of more than $8 billion in 2017.
• AT&T’s advertising and analytics business provides marketers with advanced advertising solutions using valuable customer insights from AT&T’s TV, mobile and broadband services, combined with extensive ad inventory from Turner and AT&T’s pay-TV services. A name for this company will be announced in the future.

Another part of the deal, as mentioned above, is the combination of ad inventory and analytics that will stretch across screens from TV to mobile. That business doesn’t have a name yet either, but the ability to track and target audiences is a big part of recent media consolidation efforts.

The Department of Justice said it hadn’t yet decided whether or not to appeal the decision, but did not file to delay the deal’s closing. The Wall Street Journal reports that in a letter to the DoJ, AT&T said it would create a “firewall” between Turner and AT&T to remove any competitive advantage.