3 AT&T-Time Warner Losers That Might Surprise You

The massive $85 billion AT&T Inc. T buyout of Time Warner TWX is huge news for shareholders of both companies. However, it could also be bad news for some other digital media companies.

Time Warner stock is trading more than 25 percent below AT&T’s bid price, implying that the market is skeptical that the deal will be approved by regulators.

Here’s a look at three companies that could be losers if the deal is completed:

• Alphabet Inc GOOGL – Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban believes Google and Facebook Inc FB could face heightening digital media competition from a combined AT&T/Time Warner. Google’s YouTube is one of the dominant forces in app-driven digital video content, but AT&T could provide Time Warner with the resources it needs to take a bite out of Google’s market share.
• DISH Network Corp DISH – Dish is just starting to get its $20-per-month live TV app off the ground, and Time Warner’s media assets could now give AT&T a huge opportunity to deliver a superior service. AT&T has made no secret about its plans to launch an over-the-top streaming TV service within the next two months. It also plans to exempt the new service from AT&T customers’ data caps.
• Apple Inc. AAPL – Apple had held its own internal discussions about a Time Warner buyout earlier this year. For years, Apple has been trying to put together a “skinny bundle” of TV channels similar to Sling TV's offering. Now that Time Warner’s content is even less likely to be included in such a bundle, Apple may be forced to abandon its skinny bundle plans all-together and look elsewhere for media growth opportunities.

Image: Mike Mozart, Flickr