AT&T-Time Warner Merger In Doubt; Pandora Offers Connected Home Segments

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AT&T-Time Warner Merger In Doubt

The AT&T-Time Warner acquisition seemed like a shoo-in under a merger-friendly administration. The market had confidently priced in the deal with a timeline for this year. But CNN reports that the Department of Justice is demanding Time Warner either sell off Turner, Time Warner’s media division that includes CNN, or divest DirecTV (which is a nonstarter). The new DOJ antitrust chief previously said he saw no problem with the merger, reports the Financial Times. “It’s all about CNN,” says one anonymous source involved in the negotiations. As president and candidate, Donald Trump opposed the deal. It’s a high-stakes situation, since AT&T has big media and ad tech plans. AdExchanger coverage.

Snapped Up

A day after Snap fessed up to programmatic growing pains on its earnings call, the company said in an SEC filing Wednesday that Chinese internet giant Tencent is now among its largest shareholders after hoovering up 12% of its stock off the public markets. Read it. Tencent also made a pre-IPO investment in the company in 2013. The Wall Street Journal estimates Tencent invested roughly $2 billion in Snap based on the minimum share price during the period. Snap’s stock bounced back a little from the Tencent injection after plummeting almost 20% following its earnings report. More.

Welcome Home

Pandora will let advertisers target audiences on the more than 2,000 home devices on which it’s available, Adweek’s Lauren Johnson reports. Nestle Waters used Pandora’s “mindful achiever” segment to reach people who are into health and wellness and involved in their local communities. According to CMO Jill Germano, “Not only does it let us do traditional media targeting where we know who they are and what platforms they’re on, but it lets us go deeper in terms of behavior, which helps us establish an emotional connection.” More.

A Helping Hand

Twitter opened a public beta version for its “Promote Mode,” a $99-per-month product that automatically promotes an account to juice follower numbers and reach without any active management. Read the blog post. Users can adjust its optimization based on preferences like new followers, content distribution or driving traffic to a profile page. Major brand accounts aren’t likely to use this service, but it could be just the thing for busy SMBs. More at Marketing Land.

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