AT&T收購時代華納將面臨嚴厲監管審查
AT&T faces an uphillbattle to convince US regulators that its proposed $85.4bn purchase of TimeWarner will not unfairly distort the media and communications industries afteropponents of the deal said the combined entity would wield too much marketpower.
AT&T面臨着說服美國監管機構的艱難戰鬥，以證明其擬議中的854億美元收購時代華納(Time Warner，見上圖)不會不公平地扭曲媒體和通信行業。此前這筆交易的批評者表示，合併後的實體將擁有太多的市場力量。
America’s largest telecomsgroup by market value announced on Saturday it would pay $107.50 a share forthe owner of CNN, HBO, which produces Game of Thrones and Veep, and WarnerBrothers, Hollywood’s largest film and television studio.
美國市值最大的電信集團上週六宣佈，將支付每股107.50美元，收購美國有線電視頻道CNN和HBO以及好萊塢最大影視製片公司華納兄弟(Warner Brothers)的東家；HBO製作《權力的遊戲》(Game of Thrones)和《副總統》(Veep)等電視劇。
But the deal sparked immediateopposition over the weekend and looks set to be one of the first and biggesttests of the next president’s antitrust policy.
但這筆交易在週末立即引發反對，看起來將給下一任總統的反壟斷政策帶來首批和最大考驗之一。
Donald Trump told a Gettysburgrally that he would block it if elected president and Al Franken, theDemocratic senator for Minnesota, said it raised “some immediate flags aboutconsolidation”. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, told NBC’s Meet thePress he shared those concerns, saying “less concentration I think is generallyhelpful, especially in the media”.
唐納德.特朗普(Donald Trump)在蓋茨堡的一個集會上表示，若當選總統，他將阻止這筆交易。明尼蘇達州民主黨參議員阿爾.弗蘭肯(Al Franken)表示，此舉引發了“一些有關整合的即時警示信號”。希拉里.克林頓(Hillary Clinton)的競選搭檔蒂姆.凱恩(Tim Kaine)在全國廣播公司(NBC)的《與媒體見面》(Meet the Press)節目上表示，他也有那些擔憂，表示“我認爲一般而言集中度較少會有幫助，尤其是在媒體領域”。
The purchase faces at least ayear of regulatory scrutiny. In a joint statement, senators Mike Lee and AmyKlobuchar, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate antitrustsubcommittee, said the deal “would potentially raise significant antitrustissues, which the subcommittee would carefully examine”.
這一收購面臨至少一年的監管審查。參議院反壟斷小組委員會主席、參議員邁克.李(Mike Lee)和參議院反壟斷小組委員會副主席、參議員埃米.克羅布徹(Amy Klobuchar)在一份聯合聲明中表示，這項交易“潛在將引發重大的反壟斷問題，本小組委員會將仔細研究”。
“I think AT&T is goinginto this knowing they have an uphill battle,” said Amanda Wait, an antitrustpartner at Hunton & Williams, a Washington law firm. “Any Clintonadministration will take a tough look at it. The key issues here will bewhether owning Time Warner content harms competition or whether it makesAT&T stronger.”
“我認爲AT&T在達成這筆交易的時候明白自己將有一場艱苦的戰鬥，”何威律師事務所(Hunton & Williams)華盛頓辦公室的反壟斷業務合夥人阿曼達.韋特(Amanda Wait)表示，“希拉里政府將從嚴對待。這裏的關鍵問題將是，擁有時代華納的內容會不會損害競爭，抑或它將使AT&T更強大。”
The cash and stock deal, worth$107.50 a share, brings together the telephony pioneer started by AlexanderGraham Bell in the late 19th century with an entertainment group that has itsroots in the early days of Hollywood.
這筆現金和股票交易相當於每股價值107.50美元，它將把亞歷山大.格雷厄姆.貝爾(Alexander Graham Bell)在19世紀末創建的電話服務先驅與根源可追溯至好萊塢早期的一家娛樂集團合爲一體。
Randall Stephenson, AT&T’schief executive, expressed confidence that the deal would be approved, sayingthere was no overlap between the two businesses. “This is not a horizontaldeal. This is a vertical merger,” he told journalists on a weekend conferencecall. You would be hard pressed to find examples where vertical mergers havebeen blocked.”
AT&T首席執行官蘭德爾.斯蒂芬森(Randall Stephenson)表示相信，這筆交易將獲得批准，稱兩家公司的業務沒有重疊。“這不是一筆橫向協議。這是一次縱向合併，”他在上週末的一個電話會議上對記者們表示。你很難找到垂直合併被阻止的案例。”
AT&T will point regulatorsto the 2013 purchase of NBCUniversal by its rival Comcast, a deal which wascleared after regulators imposed concessions on the cable operator. “Theantitrust division has received some complaints about Comcast’s NBCUniversaldeal,” said Ms Wait. “They will take a hard look back at their experience tosee if those remedies worked.”
AT&T將向監管者指出2013年NBC環球(NBCUniversal)被其競爭對手Comcast收購的先例，那筆交易在監管者強制要求有線運營商Comcast作出讓步後獲得批准。“反壟斷部門接到了一些針對Comcast收購NBC環球交易的投訴，”韋特表示,“他們會認真回視自己的經歷，看看那些補救措施是否起到了作用。”
Time Warner has agreed to paya $1.7bn break-fee to AT&T if it opts to sell to another buyer whileAT&T will pay Time Warner $500m if regulators block the deal, according totwo people close to the negotiations.
據接近談判的兩個知情人士透露，時代華納同意向AT&T支付17億美元的分手費——如果它選擇賣給另一個買家，而AT&T將向時代華納支付5億美元——如果監管者阻止這筆交易。
