Shareholders of US media company Time Warner have voted to approve its sale to telecommunications company AT&T in a deal valued at $85.4bn (€79.6bn).
AT&T initially agreed the deal in October, and it still faces a number of hurdles before completion. Time Warner said its shareholders yesterday (Wednesday) voted to adopt the merger agreement, with 78 per cent of the outstanding shares of common stock voting in favour. Of the shares voted, 99 per cent were cast in favour of the proposal.
Having obtained shareholder approval of the transaction, and with regulatory review of the deal underway, the company said it continues to expect the transaction to close before the end of 2017.
Time Warner chairman and chief executive, Jeff Bewkes, said: “In addition to providing shareholders with immediate value and the ability to participate in the upside of the combined company, the deal advances our long-term operational strategy.
“By combining Time Warner’s leading brands and video content with AT&T’s distribution, we will accelerate our ability to innovate, develop and deliver the next generation of video services, making our content even more valuable to consumers and business partners.”
Time Warner has a significant interest in sports broadcasting in the US, with rights to Major League Baseball, the NBA basketball league and the March Madness college sports basketball competition.
Time Warner also operates pay-television channels HBO and CNN, as well as production studio Warner Bros.
The deal is pending the approval of the authorities, and the US Department of Justice and the FCC media regulator will both have a very close look at the agreement. On the campaign trail, US President Donald Trump last year said that he would block the merger if he won the November 8 election, saying that the transaction would concentrate too much power into a single company.
Trump is yet to comment further on the matter.