Ben Gilbert: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yup. So they get acquired by Verizon and then on the Time Warner side, the deal hasn’t been approved by the government yet but they are in the process of getting acquired by AT&T. So there were all these jokes about the worst merger of all time and this tech internet company AOL merging with an old media company. And here we are in 2017 and both of them are owned by phone companies. Really, really hard to imagine. Well, for acquisition category, why don’t we actually take a stab from both directions. So let’s say first because it actually was AOL taking over Time Warner, what kind of acquisition was that for AOL? Our standard categories are people, technology, product, business line, asset or other. Brian, if I may be so bold as to voice what I think you would say, this is actually an “other” because it's not necessarily acquiring, if anything, it’s maybe acquiring a business line but it’s like acquiring stability and liquidity. It seems to be what you're implying. Like applying an exit strategy. See, here’s what I would say. The rationale is that they’re buying the business line or the technology. It’s murky to me what the category is. But they want the cable company so that they can transition into broadband. That’s their rationale. What are they really buying? The assets. They’re essentially trying to say, “Listen, if our stock is ephemeral, we need to convert it into something that will last forever.” Time Magazine has been around since the ‘20s. Warner Brothers has been around since the ‘20s. Like it’s the asset of content is king that they were really in their heart going after.…

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