AT&T Spent $85 Billion on Time Warner. It Wants the Money Back.
The phone company is rethinking its move into Hollywood, and talking to Discovery about a deal.
When asked about growing competition from streaming services Netflix and Amazon, former HBO chief Richard Plepler used to trot out a quote of uncertain provenance:
Plepler never wanted HBO to deviate from making high-end scripted series, and chase eyeballs with something like Netflix’s “Tiger King.” But that strategy didn’t work for AT&T, which acquired Time Warner for $85 billion in 2018.