AT&T's Stephenson: CNN Spinoff Doesn't Make Sense

Although AT&T and Time Warner have signaled they expect to bypass the Federal Communications Commission review of their proposed $108.7 billion merger—a review that would be triggered by the exchange of FCC licenses like those used to transmit CNN and HBO—AT&T chairman Randall Stephenson signaled a spin-off of CNN was not in the cards. "I don't know why we'd even talk about that," he said. "It doesn't seem relevant to approving a deal like this. What would be the competitive issue that you're remedying with spinning off CNN? There are not competitive issues with owning CNN." President-elect Donald Trump, who has been highly critical of CNN, has threatened to block the deal, leading some to see a spin-off as a way to ease the path to approval. But Stephenson said in the interview that he sees it as a "basic vertical merger" that will ultimately be approved.