AT&T Inc. has agreed to buy Time Warner Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal worth $85 billion, transferring ownership of one of Hollywood’s most treasured studios and transforming the 136-year-old telephone company into a massive multimedia giant.
The deal creates a distribution and content colossus of the digital age, bringing together premium assets including satellite TV provider DirecTV, cell phone network AT&T Wireless, the Warner Bros. movie and television studios and HBO and Turner cable channels under one, massive corporate roof.
AT&T will pay $107.50 per share of Time Warner, which values the transaction at $85.4 billion, according to a statement released by the companies on Saturday.