AT&T says it plans to keep top Time Warner managers

Most media mergers end with the old regime getting shoved out the door. But AT&T’s top executive says he plans to keep in place much of Time Warner’s management team.

AT&T unveiled its blockbuster $84.5-billion acquisition of Time Warner this weekend, and the heads of both companies — AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Randall Stephenson and Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes — quickly said that maintaining the executive ranks of the media company would be a priority. “I made it clear to Jeff that the talent that he assembled was a really important part of this deal,” Stephenson said. “And it was going to be really critical that we have continuity in the team that he has built.” Senior Time Warner executives — including Warner Bros. Chairman Kevin Tsujihara in Burbank (CA), HBO Chairman Richard Plepler in New York, and Turner Chairman John Martin in New York -- should be breathing easier. And Bewkes expects to hang around for some time, too. “We have both been really focused on keeping all of the Time Warner executives — the business executives and the creative executives — going forward for the long term,” Bewkes said.