Author: CECILIA KANG / Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON — Time Warner’s chief executive, Jeffrey Bewkes, vigorously defended his company’s $85.
4 billion merger with AT&T on Wednesday, saying the deal was necessary to confront “tectonic changes” in entertainment caused by internet competitors like Netflix and Amazon.Mr. Bewkes was the first top executive from Time Warner and AT&T to take the stand in federal court to argue against the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the merger. The Justice Department had sued to stop the blockbuster deal in November, arguing that a union of the two companies would harm consumers and weaken competition.
Before a packed courtroom on Wednesday, Mr. Bewkes portrayed Time Warner as an underdog against Silicon Valley giants that can reach hundreds of millions of users and are spending billions of dollars a year to produce original shows that compete with Time Warner’s HBO and Turner Broadcasting.
“We don’t have the tech platform, don’t have the engineers, don’t have the infrastructure,” Mr. Bewkes said in arguing for his company’s need to combine with AT&T, a mobile wireless and satellite television giant with access to more than 150 million subscribers nationwide.
In cross-examination, a lawyer for the Justice Department grilled Mr. Bewkes on the underdog narrative, and presented an internal document that Mr. Bewkes wrote in January 2017 to Time Warner’s board that touted the company’s revenue projections. The document also showed that Time Warner was planning to introduce digital products even without the potential merger.
Mr. Bewkes testimony came as the trial that will decide the fate of AT&T’s bid for the company enters its fifth week. The trial is being closely watched for the implications it could have on the course of antitrust policy and for how it could shape the landscape of entertainment as legacy media and telecom companies scramble to bulk up against new competition from Silicon Valley.
AT&T’s chief executive, Randall Stephenson, is expected to testify as soon as Thursday. John Stankey, the AT&T executive who is poised to run Time Warner after the merger,…
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