The telecommunications and media company, AT&T is under discussions to sell off Warner Bros gaming division in a deal that could bring them about $4 billion, according to a report by CNBC. The report further states that the potential buyers could include some big AAA publishers like Take-Two Interactive Software, Electronic Arts, and Activision-Blizzard.
Also according to CNBC, this deal will include WB’s game IPs such as Harry Potter, Batman, Lego, Game of Thrones, and Mortal Kombat. Although this doesn’t mean a direct sale of IP rather it likely mean whichever company buys the WB gaming division will enter a commercial licensing agreement with AT&T to split future revenue for franchise games.
AT&T had acquired Time Warner in 2018 in a deal that closed at $109 billion which included all of its assets. Currently, the telecom giant is nearly $150 billion in total debt and is looking to selling off some non-core assets such as the WB gaming division and DirectTV to pay-off some of its debt.
“You should see our debt levels come down as we move through the course of this year. And we’ll just keep you posted as we work through the balance of this year,” said CFO John Stephens in April when the company unveiled its quarterly results. This July John Stankey is set to replace Randall Stephenson as the chief executive officer of AT&T and with him will come several changes to how the company handles things such as the sale of assets in regard to pay-off its debts.
