AT&T and Time Warner Merger Goes Through and Comcast Makes a $65 Billion Bid on FOX

The merger between AT&T and Time Warner has been in the process of being investigated to make sure it doesn’t break antitrust laws, but Richard Leon, a federal judge, has officially approved the merger. Warner Bros. and DC Comics are part of Time Warner’s assets, which means this could potentially have an impact on all the upcoming DC movies including (but not very likely in my opinion) Aquaman, Shazam!, and Wonder Woman 1984. The Wizarding World, The Lego Movie, Legendary’s “Monsterverse”, and more are also included in the deal. This merger also opens up doors for other companies.

One of the big reasons Comcast wasn’t bidding for 20th Century Fox was because of the high levels of government scrutiny that would go into the process. However, now that this merger has gone through, it opened the doors for Comcast to have a better shot of actually pulling off an acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Deadline reports that Comcast has made an all-cash $65 billion offer which is more than Disney’s bid of $52.4 billion all-stock deal. Of course, Disney and Comcast are both loaded and this will be a crazy battle as neither company will want the other to win. It does put a potential kink in the plans of adding the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool to the MCU though. Some people, such as media analyst Michael Nathanson, believe that Disney will come out on top even if it means incurring a $37 billion debt:

“We continue to believe that Disney has the superior balance sheet, cost of debt, equity and rationale to emerge victorious over Comcast in a bidding war. The question is will Disney’s board and management go to the mat on this transaction? We think the answer is yes.”

In my opinion, I cannot believe that they didn’t think this merger broke antitrust law. I am not a lawyer or judge so maybe I’m missing something, but this is a big deal. I also would like Disney to obtain Fox for the sole purpose of bringing those characters to the MCU, but outside of that, I don’t want anyone to obtain the company. If 2 or 3 companies are in charge of all our entertainment, what then?

Do you like the news of AT&T merging with Time Warner? Do you want Disney or Comcast to acquire 20th Century Fox?