Wall Street was apparently not impress in the looming deal between AT&T Inc. and Time Warner.
After the news circulated that AT&T expressed its interest to buy Time Warner at $85 billion price tag, Wall Street responded by weakening the share values of both companies.
Time Warner share value dropped by 2.2 percent to $87.52 while AT&T fell 1.5 percent to $36.91, according to The Wall Street Journal report.
The supposed merger of Time Warner and AT&T was met with objections and criticisms by media, lawmakers, politicians and market analysts.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called for a review on the proposed deal as it could accordingly hurt consumers when media influence is concentrated into one company.
On the other hand, in an article at LA Times, Micheal Hiltzik said the two companies are so beleaguered by changes in their core businesses that their only path to survival is a merger so they can keep their fleeing customers corralled.
He said the deal would put Time Warner's competitors at a disadvantaged end in getting their products to AT&T.
"It's obvious that this goal can be reached most effectively by making Time Warner content load faster and in better quality than rival offerings," wrote Hiltzik.
For his part, Todd O'Boyle, director of the Media and Democracy Project at Common Cause, said the deal offers no guaranty of lowering consumer costs while increasing their product choices.
"The sorry history of mega-mergers shows they run roughshod over the public interest. Further entrenching monopoly harms innovation and drives up prices for consumers," he pointed out.
AT&T is a premier provider of pay TV in the U.S., the second-largest wireless company and third-largest broadband provider in the country while Time Warner is one of the nation's largest content companies, the owner of CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., among others.
