A year later, in the summer of 2016, Mr. Ginsberg, Time Warner’s head of communications, had breakfast with Peter Chernin, his former boss at News Corp. and a trusted adviser to Mr. Stephenson, in a cafe in Menemsha on Martha’s Vineyard. . Mr. Chernin asked Mr. Ginsberg what he thought Time Warner’s price might be. “We would need $105 to $115 a share,” Mr. Ginsberg suggested, pretty much from memory. Mr. Chernin does not fade.
As soon as breakfast was over, Mr. Ginsberg called Mr. Bewkes. “Are you sitting?” he asked. “Because I have incredible news that will blow your mind.”
‘They don’t own the company yet’
The two companies announced their deal on October 22, 2016. Neither AT&T nor Time Warner’s management were concerned about antitrust or other regulatory issues, as vertical combinations — mergers of buyers and suppliers, rather than competitors — were almost never challenged on antitrust grounds. In 40 years, no such case had been litigated.
They hadn’t taken into account the populist skepticism about major mergers or Donald J. Trump’s hostility to the mainstream media, especially CNN, which he repeatedly denounced as “fake news.” Mr. Trump’s anger was especially intense toward CNN CEO Jeff Zucker, who ignored (or forgot) that it was Mr. Zucker, as head of NBC Entertainment, who put “The Apprentice” in NBC’s prime-time lineup and Mr Trump made a TV star.
The proposed mega deal was one of the few issues — perhaps the only issue — that immediately united the political right and left, with Mr Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and Liberal Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren unlikely allies opposing it.
With Mr. Trump’s snap election in November, AT&T realized it had a problem. In January 2017, the company hired the president-elect’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and paid him $50,000 a month to advise it on the Time Warner merger, among other things, even though Mr. Cohen had no known antitrust expertise .
The move seemed to yield immediate results. (Mr. Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.)
Just days after Mr. Cohen was hired, Mr. Stephenson Mr. Bewkes to go with him to a Trump Tower meeting with Mr. Trump, along with Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and adviser Stephen K. Bannon. Mr Bewkes refused.
