Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox said Wednesday it offered to buy Time Warner for $80 billion to create one of the world's most powerful media conglomerates, but the bid was rejected.
Time Warner, the owner of Warner Bros., HBO, and CNN, was offered 60 percent in stock and the rest in cash in June.
CNN Money reported that the offer was 20 percent higher than Time Warner's stock on Tuesday. The stock subsequently jumped 17.3 percent to $83.33 after the news broke.
Time Warner released a statement explaining its refusal on Wednesday morning, and Fox later affirmed the contents of the statement.
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"The board is confident that continuing to execute its strategic plan will create significantly more value for the company and its stockholders and is superior to any proposal that Twenty-First Century Fox is in a position to offer," it said in-part.
Illuminating some of the potential drawbacks of a merger it said, "There is significant risk and uncertainty as to . . . Fox’s ability to govern and manage a combination of the size and scale of Twenty-First Century Fox and Time Warner . . . There are considerable strategic, operational, and regulatory risks to executing a combination."
According to The New York Times, such a combined company would have total revenue of $65 billion. It also reported that if the deal had gone through, Fox planned to sell CNN to avoid any anti-trust issues since it also owns Fox News.
The merger offer came around the same time that Time Warner spun off its legacy print publications including Time magazine, Sports Illustrated, and People.
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