On July 28, 2017, AT&T announced a new AT&T Communications corporate division housing AT&T Mobility, DirecTV, U-verse, AT&T Business, AT&T Intellectual Property, AT&T Labs, Cricket Wireless, AT&T Digital Life, Vyatta, AT&T Adworks, and Technology and Operations Group. In October 2016, AT&T announced a deal to acquire Time Warner worth $85.4 billion. The proposed deal would give AT&T significant holdings in the media industry; AT&T's competitor Comcast had previously acquired NBCUniversal in a similar bid to increase its media holdings, in concert with its ownership of television and internet providers. If approved by federal regulators, the merger would bring Time Warner's properties under the same umbrella as AT&T's telecommunication holdings, including satellite provider DirecTV. By the end of July, the company announced that, effective August 1, a new structure was created before the acquisition would close. This structure has John Donovan take the title of CEO of the new AT&T Communications, LLC subsidiary division. AT&T named John Stankey to run Time Warner media businesses and John Donovan as CEO of AT&T Communications ahead of the Time Warner acquisition. In November 2017, the U.S. Justice Department said it was moving to sue to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger. On November 20, 2017, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit over the acquisition; Makan Delrahim stated that the deal would "greatly harm American consumers". AT&T asserts that this suit is a "radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent". On December 22, 2017, the merger agreement deadline was extended to June 21, 2018. On June 12, 2018, the AT&T-Time Warner merger was approved by a federal judge. Two days later, AT&T completed the acquisition of Time Warner, and a day later the company was renamed WarnerMedia. On July 10, 2018, AT&T announced that it would acquire cybersecurity startup AlienVault for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was completed on August 22, 2018.
Satellite fleet
AT&T Communications also owns one of the world's largest satellite fleets, with 12 currently in geostationary orbit. The fleet is mainly used for their DirecTV satellite television service. The positions of the satellites range from 95 to 119 west.
