Apple is reportedly watching the potential Time Warner sale very closely, with a possible deal in the making that would see Cupertino secure the entertainment company’s impressive assets to help build up its Apple TV service.
Time Warner shares closed at $71.06 yesterday, which is far below the rejected $85 per share offer 21st Century Fox made 18 months ago. With Time Warner shares now hovering around the $70 mark, the New York Post writes that Time Warner is viewed as a “sitting duck among media companies because it, unlike its peers, doesn’t have a dual-class shareholder structure.”
As a result, shareholder pressure is on to agree to a sale, or at least to settle activist investors who are threatening a proxy fight.
Alongside Apple, other potential suitors for Time Warner include Fox and DirecTV parent company AT&T. In the Apple camp, it is Eddy Cue who is keeping tabs on what is happening, which makes perfect sense given his job of negotiating content deals.
Time Warner media mogul Jeff Bewkes reportedly met investors in several closed-door meetings Monday and Tuesday, saying he’s opposed to a deal or possible spinoff of HBO, which Time Warner owns — although hinting that a possible sale may be considered.
Given the enormous amount of content Time Warner controls, if Apple plays this correctly (which means throwing down some of its hard-earned cash), it could well be the deal that allows the company to finally launch the eagerly anticipated Apple-branded subscription TV service Tim Cook and Co. have long planned.
