What Did Obama Say to Cnn News About Running for President Again?

We know that Randall Stephenson says CNN'due south not for sale, even though he doesn't even own it nevertheless. Every bit the news emerged last week that the Department of Justice's antitrust division has been jawboning with AT&T Inc. (T) - Get AT&T Inc. Written report on its agreed-to buy of Time Warner Inc. (TWX) , with CNN an credible sticking point, the question apace followed: What would Stephenson, AT&T's CEO, do?

Would he take the DOJ's objection to court, or would he hold to divest the sticking parts of the deal, most likely CNN and parent Turner Broadcasting Organisation Inc.?

Stephenson answered the question apace: To the courts, he said on Thursday, Nov. ix. And that seemed to be the immediate finish of the question, though fifty-fifty Stephenson best-selling would-be offers for the assets already had arrived in his part.

In fact, in this nothing-is-stable media world, all bets need to be off on who might own what come up 2020. This is a media industry -- Tv, film, magazine and paper -- in the throes of upheaval. Pick your theory of the case about the 2020-2025 reality -- the primacy of content, the age of platforms, the demand for scale in distribution, the necessity of direct consumer relationships, an age of real convergence -- and ambitious strategists could make all kinds of combinations justifiable.

Merely days before the news of the Justice Department potentially blocking AT&T, we heard that Walt Disney Co. (DIS) - Become Walt Disney Visitor Studyhad been in talks to buy substantial Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (FOXA) - Get Trick Corporation Grade A Report avails. Further, the president's called Federal Communications Commission chairman, Ajit Pai, is busily demolishing most of the rules on limiting the concentration on media ownership, opening the potential of deals we previously thought impossible.

At the moment, an odd economic-loftier, politically depression moment in America, it looks like big prized names in the American media business organisation could be in play. That's a big story that will play out into 2018, as strategists gauge at what the 2020 mural will look like.

For now, allow's ask the question, though, of CNN. What if AT&T decides that its court battles, while potentially winnable, will but take likewise long? What if it calculates its deal value is as well macerated to bet on the judiciary? What if someone else comes along to make information technology an offer that makes it easier to bid CNN goodbye?

Stephenson has newly acknowledged that possibility. AT&T, he told CNN last calendar week, would use "some other avenue" to "accomplish the same thing," that is diversifying its huge but maturing business organization base.

If AT&T did sell, would it take to sell all of Turner Broadcasting, which includes TNT and TBS, in addition to CNN?  We'll exit that question for another fourth dimension and here focus on CNN.

Founded in 1980 by Ted Turner, its numbers are impressive. It rings in $1 billion in operating profit and has made substantial progress in its digital transition, now earning nigh $350 million in digital revenue a year. (That figure is $150 one thousand thousand less than The New York Times (NYT) - Get New York Times Company Class A Report .) Information technology tops the comScore Inc. charts for full audience. Farther, this twelvemonth, even in -- and because of -- the fake news hysteria, CNN has distinguished itself equally, forth with Times and The Washington Post, with its aggressive, sometimes scoopy coverage of national politics.

How much is CNN worth? Over time, analysts have pegged it at $viii billion to $10 billion. That ways relatively few companies, or individuals, could buy information technology solitary.

Importantly, too, as a cable network, it's freer of the regulatory reach involved in the selling and buying of broadcast assets. Further, CNN'due south long-standing chapter network provides built-in national/local connections, potentially valuable to some buyers.

Allow's look across the media map of logical and long-shot would-be buyers of CNN. Let's make a short list of what kinds of combinations, most potential, a few fanciful, may be possible. And let's retrieve: Whatever CNN is today could change tomorrow. The words making up its acronym themselves are laughably generic: cable news network. With changed ownership and leadership and changing faces, the CNN we've known could chop-chop fade into history.

Bloomberg LP

1 gating principle: power to buy. Check. Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith and global head of digital Scott Havens continue to quickly build out the nonterminal business organisation of Bloomberg. But this calendar week, they appear a new hiring of 50 journalists to create "outset 24-hour social news network on Twitter." Smith now positions his company alongside the embattled platforms: "In this historic period of the Google/Facebook duopoly, a relentless focus on invention and innovation is the only way to succeed. The fruits of disruption don't and shouldn't only belong to the dominant tech platforms."

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I under-reported part of Bloomberg's growth: global licensing of its content and platform. While that push focuses almost exclusively on business news, a Bloomberg/CNN combo could boss both general news and business, with even greater distribution and advertising sales power.

Private ownership also would insulate CNN from ever-intensifying winds of political pushback and potential corporate timidity, should an AT&T or others take command. Namesake founder Michael Bloomberg, who fabricated Businessweek "Bloomberg Businessweek," may similar the sound of "Bloomberg CNN."

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.

What don't Sinclair (SBGI) - Get Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. Class A Report chairman David D. Smith and CEO Christopher Ripley desire to buy? While greatly challenged, they're perilously shut to endmost on their acquisition of Tribune Media Co. (TRCO) - Go Tribune Media Co. Form A Study . That would requite them a reach into 72% of U.Due south. households, all through local broadcast stations. In total, with the add-on of Tribune Media'south 42 stations, Sinclair would own 233 TV stations. That's a number without precedent in local broadcasting and just possible given the paving of its way by FCC Chairman Pai.

Sinclair already has ramped upwardly its national presence (and nationally mandated, must-carry, fact-challenged editorials) with a new national digital presence -- Circa.

In contempo months, conjecture has heightened about Sinclair's wont to compete with Fox News for its audition. One big hurdle: wagon. CNN would solve that trouble.

Verizon Communications Inc.

The company (VZ) - Get Verizon Communications Inc. Report finds itself in the same pickle every bit AT&T. Its businesses are maturing, it needs growth -- and information technology wants to become more digital. CEO Lowell McAdam already has bet on content, first answering Tim Armstrong's siren call and ownership AOL Inc., and and so Yahoo Inc.'due south core business. A CNN purchase could be transformative. Yet, logically -- to the logic, such equally information technology is, of the DOJ's objection to AT&T-Fourth dimension Warner -- Verizon would find itself similarly disqualified by the feds. Further, Stephenson wouldn't want to terminate upward making i of his main competitors potentially stronger.

Comcast Corp.

It's another AT&T competitor, with ambitions of greater say-so. AT&T would and so accept like competitive concerns. Further, Comcast (CMCSA) - Get Comcast Corporation Grade A Written report owns NBC, and with information technology MSNBC. One line of idea: It has what information technology needs in national and global news gathering and in national distribution. The other: In a world of consolidation, bigger is always better. Why play 2nd fiddle to CNN in total audience and other categories? Why not combine two legacy news operations and build a single digital/TV performance that is truly dominant globally?

Disney

Nosotros know that Disney actively seeks more than picture and TV avails -- more than content for global distribution as information technology contests Netflix Inc. (NFLX) - Get Netflix, Inc. Report and the emergent digital-but movie business organisation. Witness its talks with Fox, which some notation will exist ongoing. Yes, information technology's seen a reversal of fortune with cable -- ESPN, ancestral cousin of CNN at its founding, is losing its luster -- but information technology does ain ABC News. Nosotros could argue that ABC needs scale, or a auction, to survive in digital times.

CBS Corp.

CBS News (CBS) - Get CBS Corporation Class B Report serves as another once-slap-up (Big 3!) still finding its way in the new world, though, like ABC and NBC, it can count a large digital audience. "CNN is the perfect complement to CBS News, lots of cost savings," said ane exec quite familiar with both.

Information technology's all cablevision, but afterward the CBS split, Viacom (VIAB) - Get Viacom Inc. Class B Report doesn't have the news genes. "Wrong civilization," ane exec summed upward.

Hearst Corp.

This huge, individual, most media-diversified of companies has fabricated lots of coin in cable too. CNN would be a big stretch, especially for a company known for its fiscal discipline and sober strategies. Yet the company has shown signs of wanting to exist more of a player in the unfolding media historic period, so don't count information technology out.

Fox

Yes, we know that Rupert Murdoch is, oddly it seems, considering selling some of his prized Fox assets, but never underestimate trader Rupe.

He's already been accused of whispering in Trump'south ear about the perils of AT&T's bid. At the aforementioned time, it's been reported that Play a joke on is amidst the companies that may have newly sniffed around CNN, should information technology break loose. Yes, the adjacent generation of Murdochs awaits, but consider that Rupert Murdoch may now face the almost wide-open American ownership -- and merging -- opportunity of his lifetime, courtesy of the deregulation he has advocated for decades.

A Fox/CNN merger? Odder than a sale but indeed possible. Think assets and audiences -- not the political hoo-hah of the day -- and a different possibility emerges.

New York Times Co.

We know the Sulzbergers, past themselves, couldn't pull off such a purchase, merely consider the potential news powerhouse that would be created.

Trump times have crystallized the news media world, promoting the summit brands. At the same time, it is global journalism that offers the most potential return in 2020 to 2030, equally Times CEO Marking Thompson said, speaking of "hundreds of millions of college-educated English speakers" recently. While the Times' "The Daily" news podcast has offered upward revelatory success extending the Times across text to audio, the video frontier is one it should master. CNN'southward a forcefulness, just it doesn't have the stature of the Times. Together, they would accept the largest journalistic workforce in the world. Admittedly, this isn't a new thought -- I suggested a partnership five years ago -- just it's i to newly ponder.

Lastly, both news institutions could see themselves strengthened against a new competitor -- The Washington Mail service.

Jeff Bezos

Which, of course, brings us to the billionaire who'southward shown what small investment and confidence can do speedily in propelling an older-school news make into digital prominence.

"The Postal service is a vanity buy," suggested one savvy news executive, when I suggested a Bezos purchase. "CNN will need a business case."

Perhaps, but at the age of 53 and almost $100 billion in wealth, Bezos may be tempted to practise in the digital age what Turner audaciously did 37 years ago. Here, too, we come across the potential of a clear No. i news giant, simply as the Post itself has begun seeing itself as much a global player as a national one. Think of the synergies. As i wag suggested, "He could make advertizing-gratuitous OTT available to Prime members or Kindle hardware owners!"

Vladimir Putin

If an American billionaire tin can do it, why not a Russian one? The Justice Section has finally best-selling what RT (Russian federation Television receiver) has long been, an agent of state propaganda, and forced it to register as a foreign agent. Putin's at present playing the game of the day: faux equivalence. He's talked almost demanding the license of U.Due south. media trying to cover his country. Wouldn't information technology exist easier merely to own a worldwide cable news network?

While there may be some bothersome laws making such an acquisition difficult, mayhap Putin'southward friend in the White House could smoothen the path.

More plausibly, an exec pointed to other foreign parties: "I wouldn't rule out Alibaba (BABA) - Become Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Report or Tencent. Either can easily buy it, and even the Justice Department will be very hard-pressed to make a case on the regulatory or the foreign ownership front."

Comcast is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio . Want to be alerted before Cramer and the AAP team buy or sell CMCSA? Learn more now .

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