All the news about the AT&T - Time Warner merger

For the second time in less than a year, a US court has ruled that AT&T can buy Time Warner.

If you’re confused about that sentence, here’s a very brief explanation: Last year, a federal judge blessed AT&T’s $85 billion-ish takeover of Time Warner — a deal that the US Department of Justice had tried to stop. The DOJ appealed, and now a US District Court in Washington, DC, has denied the appeal.

Verizon? Go right ahead. Charter? You, too. Amazon and other tech companies with billions to burn? Go for it.

That’s the message from a federal judge, who has ruled today that AT&T can buy Time Warner — and, crucially, didn’t apply any restrictions to his decision.

Here’s a map my colleague Rani Molla and I made earlier this year, showing who owns pretty much everything in the video and TV world, and who’s about to get into that world. People really like it, and we’re pretty proud of it.

Go take one more look at it now:

AT&T is planning to buy Time Warner for $85 billion, which has given several folks in the media world a heavy dose of déjà vu.

Back in 2000, a $164 billion deal created AOL Time Warner, unifying distribution and content along very similar lines to those now being preached by AT&T’s leadership. The results were disastrous. And one of the guys who was there — longtime AOL executive Ted Leonsis — said in hindsight that buying Time Warner wrecked the company’s momentum.

In the end, I guess you could finally say Steve Case was right.

Case led AOL to great power in the 1990s, and he then presided over what has become known as one of the worst mergers of all time, when he combined his high-flying internet giant with Time Warner, back at the turn of the century.

When AT&T owns Time Warner, nothing will change; AT&T will treat Time Warner like a standalone company.

When AT&T owns Time Warner, AT&T will offer Time Warner stuff to its customers that they can’t get anywhere else.

It’s a done deal. AT&T will buy Time Warner for $85 billion, the two companies said Saturday, the largest media transaction since AOL merged with Time Warner 16 years ago.

Whether you think it’s a bad idea or a good one — or at least one that can be rationalized — it’s a big win for Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and the investors. AT&T is offering $107.50 a share, a 36 percent premium to Wednesday’s closing price, the day before Bloomberg News first reported the pending acquisition.

Randall Stephenson runs AT&T. If shareholders, and ultimately regulators, approve, he is also going to run Time Warner after buying the entertainment conglomerate for more than $80 billion.

So you should probably know who he is. Here’s one way to learn about him: Watch this 11-minute speech he gave to AT&T employees last month in Dallas, where he explains that many white people — like himself — have no idea what life is like for black Americans.

AT&T wants to buy Time Warner, and Wall Street, predictably, obliged, sending Time Warner shares up and AT&T stock down. (Bloomberg reports AT&T is offering $110 a share, a 24 percent premium to today’s closing price, pegging the total value at about $86 billion.)

Too bad the deal doesn’t make much sense. (Similarly, it doesn’t make sense for Apple to own Time Warner, either, which we’ll get to further down.)