On October 22, AT&T Inc. said it agreed to buy Time Warner Inc. for $85.4 billion. However, then Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump vowed at a rally to block the deal if he won, saying, “It’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”
On November 9, the day after Donald Trump won the election, Reuters reported Time Warner shares had fallen more than 2 percent on worries Trump may block the deal, which the news source called “The boldest move yet by a telecommunications company to acquire content to stream over its network to attract a growing number of online viewers.” The article also reported bankers are seeing a pause in mergers & acquisitions as companies and advisors wait to see how Trump’s antitrust enforcement policy will take shape.
According to the report, AT&T CFO John Stephens said his company was looking forward to working with Trump and was "optimistic" regulators would approve the deal.
Many investors are saying it is too early to tell whether Trump will block the deal, while other big pending U.S. deals did not see sharp changes in their spreads on Wednesday morning.
To see the original article, visit www.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-trump-idUSKBN134293.