Time Warner Earnings: Media Giant Brings Drama to AT&T

(Bloomberg Gadfly) -- Time Warner Inc. reported quarterly results on Wednesday for potentially its last time as an independent company. Soon, it will be disrupting the routine over at AT&T Inc. 

The success of the Warner Bros. movie "Wonder Woman" helped boost Time Warner's adjusted earnings 3 percent, topping analysts' expectations. The TV-network and movie-studio owner and AT&T are inching closer to completing their $109 billion megamerger, which the companies expect to take place by the end of the year and news reports have pegged closer to September.

Time Warner will provide some needed growth and excitement to AT&T, but along with that comes volatility that AT&T investors may need time to get accustomed to. While the Turner and HBO networks remain relatively predictable even amid cord-cutting, the movie-making business ebbs and flows from period to period, with the fourth quarter typically the strongest.

It's just one of the ways in which AT&T could agitate investors. Last week, I explained how a tug-of-war over the company's cash

AT&T will look much different. Whether that's good or bad will ultimately be determined, but in the meantime it will be exciting to watch how these two vastly different business and cultures get on together.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Tara Lachapelle is a Bloomberg Gadfly columnist covering deals. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.

To contact the author of this story: Tara Lachapelle in New York at tlachapelle@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Niemi at dniemi1@bloomberg.net.