AT&T周二表示，将以430亿美元的交易剥离华纳媒体，将其媒体资产与Discovery合并，并将股息削减近一半。
AT&T 股东将拥有新华纳兄弟探索公司 71% 的股份，他们持有的每一股 AT&T 股票将获得 0.24 股华纳兄弟探索公司的股份。交易完成后，AT&T 将拥有 72 亿股稀释后流通股。
周二上午，AT&T 股价下跌约 4%。
AT&T 将支付每股 1.11 美元的股息，低于每股 2.08 美元。这是 AT&T 早些时候预测的 80 亿至 90 亿美元范围的下限。
去年初宣布解除 AT&T 以 850 亿美元收购时代华纳的交易，但一些财务细节直到周二才披露。 AT&T 重申其预计该旋转将在 2022 年第二季度结束。
AT&T 曾考虑分拆而不是分拆华纳媒体。在这种情况下，股东可以选择将 AT&T 股票换成 WarnerMedia-Discovery 的股票。
斯坦基上周告诉 CNBC，旋转可以避免价值“泄漏”，因为它是免税的。
“要执行拆分，尤其是这种规模的拆分，需要一些价值泄漏才能执行并实际获得股票，”斯坦基上周表示。 “我不确定我现在是否真的是这种价值泄漏动态的忠实粉丝，并且被第二次猜测。”
Spinning WarnerMedia 允许 AT&T 将资本支出集中在建设无线网络上，而不是花在娱乐内容上，以与 Netflix、迪士尼和其他流媒体服务竞争。 AT&T 预计今年将花费约 200 亿美元的资本支出，以加大对光纤到家庭宽带互联网服务的投资，并扩大其 5G 无线覆盖范围。
该交易还将有助于减轻 AT&T 的沉重债务负担。该公司第四季度末的净债务为 1562 亿美元，净债务与调整后 EBITDA 的比率约为 3.22 倍。
AT&T 表示，预计到 2023 年底债务比率将降至 2.5 倍，如果该比率进一步降低，它将考虑进行股票回购。
尽管华纳媒体的 HBO Max 在第四季度在美国增长更快，到年底拥有 7400 万订户，但华纳兄弟探索将追赶规模更大的流媒体视频竞争对手 Netflix。 Netflix 在全球拥有超过 2.22 亿用户。
迪士尼下周公布的财务业绩将提供另一个衡量流媒体业务活力的指标，因为华尔街质疑专注于流媒体视频的全行业重组是否会带来长期回报。这将有助于指导投资者对华纳兄弟探索公司的估值，该公司将在股票代码 WBD 下交易。
——路透社为本报告做出了贡献。
更正：本文已重新归档，以删除债务比率参考中的无意符号。
AT&T to spin off WarnerMedia in $43 billion Discovery media merger, cuts dividend
AT&T said on Tuesday it will spin off WarnerMedia in a $43 billion transaction to merge its media properties with Discovery and also cut its dividend by nearly half.
AT&T shareholders will own 71% of the new Warner Bros. Discovery company and will receive 0.24 shares of Warner Bros. Discovery for each AT&T share they own. AT&T will have 7.2 billion diluted shares outstanding after the transaction closes.
AT&T shares were down about 4% Tuesday morning.
AT&T will pay a dividend of $1.11 per share, down from $2.08 per share. This is at the lower end of an $8 billion to $9 billion range AT&T had forecast earlier.
The deal to unwind AT&T's $85 billion purchase of Time Warner was announced early last year, but some financial details were not disclosed until Tuesday. AT&T reiterated its expectation the spin will close in the second quarter of 2022.
AT&T had contemplated a split-off, rather than a spin, of WarnerMedia. In that scenario, shareholders would have the option to exchange AT&T shares for stock in WarnerMedia-Discovery.
Stankey told CNBC last week a spin would avoid “leakage” in value because it's tax free.
“To execute a split, especially one of this size, it would require some value leakage to execute that and actually get the shares placed,” said Stankey last week. “I'm not sure I'm really a big fan of that value leakage dynamic right now and being second guessed on it.”
Spinning WarnerMedia allows AT&T to focus its capital expenditure on building out its wireless network rather than spending on entertainment content to compete with Netflix, Disney and other streaming services. AT&T anticipates spending about $20 billion in capital expenditures this year to invest more heavily into fiber to the home broadband internet services and expanding its 5G wireless footprint.
The transaction will also help reduce AT&T's heavy debt load. It ended the fourth quarter with net debt of $156.2 billion, giving it a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of about 3.22 times.
AT&T said it expected the debt ratio to drop to 2.5 times by the end of 2023 and that it would consider share buybacks if the ratio is reduced further.
Warner Bros Discovery will be playing catch up to larger streaming video rival Netflix even though WarnerMedia's HBO Max grew faster in the United States in the fourth quarter, ending the year with 74 million subscribers. Netflix has more than 222 million global subscribers.
Disney's financial results due next week will provide another gauge of the vitality of the streaming business as Wall Street questions if the industry-wide reorganization to focus on streaming video will pay off long term. That will help guide how investors value Warner Bros Discovery, which will trade under the ticker WBD.
--Reuters contributed to this report.
Correction: This article has been refiled to remove an inadvertent symbol in debt ratio references.
