The first rule of mergers is don’t do a deal with Time Warner. The second rule, as they say, is that there is only one rule.
On Saturday, AT&T T -4.92% broke that rule, announcing it was going to buy Time Warner TWX 6.76% for $85.4 billion, or $107.40 a share. Time Warner’s last big deal, of course, was a doozy. Back in 2001, AOL agreed to buy Time Warner for $112 billion, in a deal that merged a content provider with what was then the leading provider of access to the Internet. It was supposed to be a competition killer.
