AT&T/Time Warner Deal Hog The Limelight

While the big news today is the announcement of the $85.4 billion buyout of Time Warner TWX by AT&T (NYSE:T) T, we will leave the discussion for elsewhere on Zacks.com, particularly here: AT&T (T) to Acquire Time Warner in $85.4 Billion Mega Deal

We’ve also got a fresh batch of Q3 earnings results before the opening bell today. AT&T competitor T-Mobile U.S. TMUS reported mixed top- and bottom-line results, posting 27 cents per share (a 5-cent beat from the Zacks consensus estimate) on quarterly sales of $9.246 billion (which missed the $9.441 billion expected). Though the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company is upbeat on subscriber growth numbers, the bigger question looks to be how T-Mobile will continue to compete with AT&T, assuming its Time Warner deal goes through.

Jeans and casual-wear manufacturer V.F. Corporation VFC be at earnings estimates for its third consecutive quarter, reporting $1.20 per share as opposed to the $1.15 we were looking for. Revenues, however, were also light expectations: $3.59 billion missed our $3.66 billion target. The company behind Wrangler and Lee brands did raise its dividend yield, but shares are down 2% in the pre-market.

Convenience products maker Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) KMB disappointed on both top and bottom lines earlier this morning, its $1.52 per share missing the Zacks consensus by 2 cents, and $4.59 billion in quarterly sales. The company also lowered full-year guidance on what it called a “challenging economy.” The Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) stock is trading down 2.75% at this hour.

Questions Regarding AT&T-Time Warner Merger

Going back to the AT&T/Time Warner deal, though AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson was excited to announce this proposed acquisition as a “purely vertical integration,” the timing of the announcement is rather curious, coming roughly two weeks prior to the U.S. presidential election. Both Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic party presidential candidate also-ran Bernie Sanders have publicly announced their rejection of the deal. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has not yet weighed in.

This is to suggest that to whatever extent a mega-merger like this one is subject to political pressure, the second-biggest telephone carrier may experience the brunt of this in reaction to its attempt to annex the company which owns HBO, TBS and Warner Brothers Entertainment. Perhaps this would have been the case regardless, but it would seem to invite public scrutiny; analysts are now sifting through whether or not it is likely to pass.

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