Acquisition Of Time Warner By AT & T. Management Essay

ACQUISITION OF TIME WARNER BY AT & T
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ACQUISITION OF TIME WARNER BY AT & T
The acquisition of Time Warner by AT & T could be a surgical strategic masterstroke that will give the wireless company a significant edge in the industry. Being a wireless company, AT & T has in-depth background information on the wireless industry and how it works. Additionally, by coming in the media, after acquiring Time Warner, it is a double win for the company, which will combine its wireless expertise with Time Warner’s media line up, which includes networks such as CNN, TNT, the prized HBO channel and Warner Bros. film and TV studio. AT&T Inc. T -1.54% has reached an agreement to buy Time Warner Inc. TWX 0.23% for $85.4 billion in a deal that would transform the phone company into a media giant (Thomas, Kaech, et al., 2016).
This is most likely to take the industry by storm.AT & T was already a giant in its own right, and now added to its conquest, is the acquisition of Time Warner. Therefore, the victorious military is first victorious and after that does battle (Sun Tzu, Art of War). What then is to merge and acquire? In business, to merge and acquire is to consolidate two or more companies into a single unit, while acquisition simply means a company purchasing the other, as in the case of AT & T and Time Warner. Therefore, Target Company in this scenario is Time Warner while AT & T is the acquirer.
A strategy is an integrated and coordinated set of actions taken to exploit core competencies and gain a competitive advantage. The strategic aim of AT & T is to not only widen its wireless coverage in homes but also to reach more people and audience from this acquisition. Homes that watch networks such as CNN, TNT, HBO, and Warner Bros products, will automatically have coverage from AT & T given they will be doing wireless distribution of these networks, to households. The kind of strategy being pursued by AT & T is a Cost Leadership Strategy, integrated set of actions taken to produce goods or services with features that are acceptable to customers at the lowest cost, relative to that of competitors. It also intends to create differences between the firm’s competitive position and those of its competitors. To position itself, AT & T has decided to perform its functions differently as well as perform other newer functions, different from its competitors. This is evidenced by how the company wants to perform its functions differently is through using TV networks to provide wireless services to its c...