AT&T formally announced last week that it has agreed to acquire Time Warner for $85.4 billion. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and if the company receives a competing offer before the deal is closed, it has a responsibility to its shareholders to consider the bid. Apple was said to be keeping an eye on the AT&T/Time Warner deal and a new report suggests that major investment bank Goldman Sachs is pushing Apple to make a competing bid.
If Apple does decide to make a bid, it would be the biggest acquisition the company has ever made. The most expensive company that it ever purchased was Beats which was acquired for $3 billion back in 2014. It would have to beat AT&T’s $85.4 billion bid for Time Warner and that’s obviously easier said than done.
However, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s quarterly earnings call last week that Apple is open to making strategic deals of any size. “We are open to acquisitions of any size that are of strategic value, where we can deliver better products to our customers and innovate more,” he said.
This doesn’t mean that Apple will bid for Time Warner, though, it only shows that the company won’t shy away from spending billions of dollars if a feel that an acquisition is in line with its long-term goals.
Goldman might be making an effort to push Apple to make a bid just so it can get a piece of the pie, it’s a technique known as “Dialing for dollars” in the market, whereby an investment bank that’s not part of a major deal tries to get a new buyer in the mix just to get a piece of the action.
Filed in . Read more about AT&T and Time Warner. Source: nypost