AT&T's John Stankey hopes to avoid a disconnect in merger with Time Warner
LOS ANGELES - On a sunny Saturday earlier this summer, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President John Stankey came face to face with Hollywood's lingering perception of the phone company.
"When I started, if I would have ended up in an AT&T commercial - it would have been the kiss of death," actress Kate Hudson said, drawing howls of laughter from the crowd gathered in a Warner Bros. theater outside Los Angeles for an AT&T-sponsored panel discussion on changes in media.
Stankey chortled, but Hudson's candid remark underscored serious challenges he could encounter after AT&T completes its $85.4 billion acquisition of media company Time Warner Inc. Stankey has been tapped to run the Time Warner businesses, which include some of the most storied brands in entertainment - the Warner Bros. movie and TV studio and such prominent networks as HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies.
A green light from the government is expected this month, according to people close to the process who were not authorized to discuss it. The U.S. Department of Justice is in the final stages of its merger review, these people said.
Buying Time
