mergers

Dish Network Corp. is in talks to merge with T-Mobile US Inc., people familiar with the matter said, a deal that would accelerate a wave of consolidation across the U.S. media and communications industries. The two sides are in close agreement about what the combined company would look like, with Dish CEO Charlie Ergen becoming the company’s chairman and his T-Mobile counterpart, John Legere, serving as the combined company’s CEO, the people said.

Comcast-Time Warner Cable won’t be the last merger that the cable, broadband and media industries will be bringing to Washington. Not even a day after Comcast walked from its deal, Wall Street analysts were gaming a Charter Communications-Time Warner Cable tie-up. No doubt there will be plenty of others as media and distribution companies try to compete with the likes of Google and Facebook for local and national ad dollars. Here’s what media moguls can learn from the collapse of the Comcast deal:

Scripps and Journal simultaneously spun off and merged their newspaper operations to form Journal Media Group and immediately thereafter merged their broadcast operations, making Scripps one of the nation’s largest independent TV station owners. 

Upon closing of the transactions, Scripps and Journal will merge their broadcast operations, creating an expanded Scripps, while simultaneously spinning off and merging their newspaper operations to form a new publicly traded company called Journal Media Group.

By mid-April, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel likely will be part of a new Milwaukee-based newspaper company — and Milwaukee broadcast icons WTMJ-AM-TV likely will be run from a headquarters in Cincinnati. That is the timetable expected to be set in motion assuming shareholders from Journal Communications and E.W. Scripps approve a merger of the two companies’ broadcast units and a spinoff of the newspaper group. If that happens, both companies will hold special meetings scheduled for March 11 in Milwaukee for Journal shareholders and in Cincinnati for Scripps shareholders.

Is Verizon seriously considering a bid for AOL? Not according to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, refuting a Bloomberg story. Despite McAdam’s claims to the contrary, some analysts believe that a VerIzon-AOL deal is indeed in the works.

The FCC has delayed its review of Comcast’s proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable — which, if approved, would greatly increase Comcast’s broadband footprint. The FCC is also suspending its review of AT&T’s proposed merger with DirecTV. The agency said it suspended the informal 180-day countdown clocks because nine content companies — including CBS, Fox, Time Warner and Disney — refused to disclose key information about their deals with cable providers.

Competition isn’t the only think that could be hampered if Fox buys Time Warner, as the free-flow of diverse opinions could be, too. The merger would reduce control of the major Hollywood studios to five owners, from six, and major television producers to four, from five.

The $76 billion cash-and-stock bid by Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. was partly meant to counter consolidation among TV distributors like Comcast-Time Warner Cable and AT&T-DirecTV. The more must-have channels like HBO and Fox News Channel are assembled under one company, the stronger that company’s bargaining position in demanding licensing fees from the TV distributors, no matter how big they get. If talks resume and a takeover succeeds, here are some possibilities.

Stock prices of satellite-TV companies came hurtling toward Earth Thursday after Charlie Ergen, chairman of the second-largest player in the sector, Dish Network, said a deal with DirecTV was unlikely. Ergen said he couldn’t afford such a deal as DirecTV’s share price has become a bit too frothy.

The companies issued a joint statement late Thursday saying they mutually agreed to call off the $35 billion deal that would have created the world’s largest advertising agency because they were not able to complete the merger in a reasonable time frame.

Senior executives from Comcast and Time Warner Cable were grilled for more than three hours Wednesday about their proposed merger by a mostly skeptical Senate Judiciary Committee concerned that the more than $40 billion deal would be bad for consumers and competition.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai says that any effort by Comcast Corp. to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. would face significant hurdles in Washington, casting doubt on a cable industry consolidation scenario that has grabbed Wall Street’s attention. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.

The merged video transport firm will keep the Nevion name, focus on innovating in professional media transport and delivery.

A possible merger between DirecTV and Dish Network has been on the table for a decade. Dish CEO Charlie Ergen tried to get the job done 10 years ago, only to have it rejected by the feds. Now the idea is back on the table for both groups, and Ergen says this time it could actually pass the federal regulatory test. Though I am typically not a fan of mergers, as they all too often have a way of erasing shareholder value, this could be a great move for both companies, consolidating the satellite industry and launching a new competitive service against its cable and telecom brethren.

A Dish-DirecTV merger may help limit increases in customers’ TV bills, which can top $100 a month, by giving the combined company more leverage in negotiations with TV networks.

Comcast could be looking for more. CBS? Perhaps it could use a few more few more cable channels — especially widely distributed basic ones. Fox has broad assets, including TV stations and cable channels. Maybe it wants a pay TV group.