AT&T收购时代华纳将面临严厉监管审查
AT&T faces an uphillbattle to convince US regulators that its proposed $85.4bn purchase of TimeWarner will not unfairly distort the media and communications industries afteropponents of the deal said the combined entity would wield too much marketpower.
AT&T面临着说服美国监管机构的艰难战斗，以证明其拟议中的854亿美元收购时代华纳(Time Warner，见上图)不会不公平地扭曲媒体和通信行业。此前这笔交易的批评者表示，合并后的实体将拥有太多的市场力量。
America’s largest telecomsgroup by market value announced on Saturday it would pay $107.50 a share forthe owner of CNN, HBO, which produces Game of Thrones and Veep, and WarnerBrothers, Hollywood’s largest film and television studio.
美国市值最大的电信集团上周六宣布，将支付每股107.50美元，收购美国有线电视频道CNN和HBO以及好莱坞最大影视制片公司华纳兄弟(Warner Brothers)的东家；HBO制作《权力的游戏》(Game of Thrones)和《副总统》(Veep)等电视剧。
But the deal sparked immediateopposition over the weekend and looks set to be one of the first and biggesttests of the next president’s antitrust policy.
但这笔交易在周末立即引发反对，看起来将给下一任总统的反垄断政策带来首批和最大考验之一。
Donald Trump told a Gettysburgrally that he would block it if elected president and Al Franken, theDemocratic senator for Minnesota, said it raised “some immediate flags aboutconsolidation”. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, told NBC’s Meet thePress he shared those concerns, saying “less concentration I think is generallyhelpful, especially in the media”.
唐纳德.特朗普(Donald Trump)在盖茨堡的一个集会上表示，若当选总统，他将阻止这笔交易。明尼苏达州民主党参议员阿尔.弗兰肯(Al Franken)表示，此举引发了“一些有关整合的即时警示信号”。希拉里.克林顿(Hillary Clinton)的竞选搭档蒂姆.凯恩(Tim Kaine)在全国广播公司(NBC)的《与媒体见面》(Meet the Press)节目上表示，他也有那些担忧，表示“我认为一般而言集中度较少会有帮助，尤其是在媒体领域”。
The purchase faces at least ayear of regulatory scrutiny. In a joint statement, senators Mike Lee and AmyKlobuchar, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate antitrustsubcommittee, said the deal “would potentially raise significant antitrustissues, which the subcommittee would carefully examine”.
这一收购面临至少一年的监管审查。参议院反垄断小组委员会主席、参议员迈克.李(Mike Lee)和参议院反垄断小组委员会副主席、参议员埃米.克罗布彻(Amy Klobuchar)在一份联合声明中表示，这项交易“潜在将引发重大的反垄断问题，本小组委员会将仔细研究”。
“I think AT&T is goinginto this knowing they have an uphill battle,” said Amanda Wait, an antitrustpartner at Hunton & Williams, a Washington law firm. “Any Clintonadministration will take a tough look at it. The key issues here will bewhether owning Time Warner content harms competition or whether it makesAT&T stronger.”
“我认为AT&T在达成这笔交易的时候明白自己将有一场艰苦的战斗，”何威律师事务所(Hunton & Williams)华盛顿办公室的反垄断业务合伙人阿曼达.韦特(Amanda Wait)表示，“希拉里政府将从严对待。这里的关键问题将是，拥有时代华纳的内容会不会损害竞争，抑或它将使AT&T更强大。”
The cash and stock deal, worth$107.50 a share, brings together the telephony pioneer started by AlexanderGraham Bell in the late 19th century with an entertainment group that has itsroots in the early days of Hollywood.
这笔现金和股票交易相当于每股价值107.50美元，它将把亚历山大.格雷厄姆.贝尔(Alexander Graham Bell)在19世纪末创建的电话服务先驱与根源可追溯至好莱坞早期的一家娱乐集团合为一体。
Randall Stephenson, AT&T’schief executive, expressed confidence that the deal would be approved, sayingthere was no overlap between the two businesses. “This is not a horizontaldeal. This is a vertical merger,” he told journalists on a weekend conferencecall. You would be hard pressed to find examples where vertical mergers havebeen blocked.”
AT&T首席执行官兰德尔.斯蒂芬森(Randall Stephenson)表示相信，这笔交易将获得批准，称两家公司的业务没有重叠。“这不是一笔横向协议。这是一次纵向合并，”他在上周末的一个电话会议上对记者们表示。你很难找到垂直合并被阻止的案例。”
AT&T will point regulatorsto the 2013 purchase of NBCUniversal by its rival Comcast, a deal which wascleared after regulators imposed concessions on the cable operator. “Theantitrust division has received some complaints about Comcast’s NBCUniversaldeal,” said Ms Wait. “They will take a hard look back at their experience tosee if those remedies worked.”
AT&T将向监管者指出2013年NBC环球(NBCUniversal)被其竞争对手Comcast收购的先例，那笔交易在监管者强制要求有线运营商Comcast作出让步后获得批准。“反垄断部门接到了一些针对Comcast收购NBC环球交易的投诉，”韦特表示,“他们会认真回视自己的经历，看看那些补救措施是否起到了作用。”
Time Warner has agreed to paya $1.7bn break-fee to AT&T if it opts to sell to another buyer whileAT&T will pay Time Warner $500m if regulators block the deal, according totwo people close to the negotiations.
据接近谈判的两个知情人士透露，时代华纳同意向AT&T支付17亿美元的分手费——如果它选择卖给另一个买家，而AT&T将向时代华纳支付5亿美元——如果监管者阻止这笔交易。
