Less than a week ago, AT&T had revealed that it had completed its acquisition of Time Warner, to the tune of $85.4 billion. Now, there is talk that the number two wireless service provider in the United States is looking to scoop all of Otter Media.
Right now, AT&T is co-owner of the Otter Media brand, together with The Chernin Group. But according to a report recently published by Recode, it appears that AT&T is looking to aggressively expand its current properties in order to Crunchyroll (streaming service) and Fullscreen (network geared for teenage audiences). On top of that, it is quite possible that actress Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine (which has an existing digital media agreement with Otter Media) will also end up being acquired by AT&T. Although terms of the acquisition were not made public as yet, the deal is expected to close before the end of this summer season.
Per Recode’s report, the acquisition deal is not completely a secret in the industry. While AT&T was busy trying to get its $85 billion deal with Time Warner done, the Otter Media deal had to wait. It was around four years ago when both AT&T and The Chernin Group decided to invest about half a billion dollars into Otter Media. But with AT&T reportedly showing some real interest in buying out the Otter Media brand, the major US wireless carrier could put itself in a nice position to expand its media assets. Moreover, AT&T might also be planning to purchase AppNexus, an advertising technology firm, for a sum of $1.6 billion.
It is not clear yet just how AT&T’s move (that is, if it turns out to be true) will affect Otter Media’s properties. Take Crunchyroll (which is a subsidiary of Ellation), for instance -- this website is considered by many as one of the best places in the world wide web to stream anime content. And with Crunchyroll recently striking a partnership with Funimation, dozens of top tier programs have been added to its expanding range of titles.
With the benefit of some hindsight, AT&T acquiring Otter Media may not be that surprising. Some may remember that back in February early this year, the national mobile operator had announced that it was appointing Tony Goncalves as the chief executive officer of Otter Media. Goncalves has been serving as CEO of AT&T’s Digital Brands, where he generally managed the Otter Media relationship with The Chernin Group, and even strategized the company’s entry into OTT (over the top) with the DirecTV Now brand.
