Rupert Murdoch threw the broadcasting world into a tizzy when word got out his 21sts Century Fox tried to acquire Time Warner for $80 billion but was roundly rejected.
This won''t necessarily stop the media mogul and begins furious speculation on Time Warner's future as an independent company. Will other companies jump in the ring?
We in Atlanta care about Turner Broadcasting, home to 6,500 of the unit's 13,000 employees. That includes HLN, CNN, TruTV, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, TCM and Adult Swim.
Turner is a crucial cog in the Time Warner empire, generating nearly 40 percent of its total revenue and even more of its profits. Better yet, it has valuable rights to air NCAA, NBA and MLB ballgames, rights that Murdoch covets for his fledgling Fox Sports 1 network.
If Murdoch were to pick up Time Warner, he'd likely have to shed CNN since he already owns Fox News. And while CNN remains a valuable brand name and asset, it's not nearly as coveted as it was, say, 18 years ago when Time Warner purchased Turner from Ted for $7.5 billion. Someone would scoop up CNN.
And though most of the top-ranked executives for Turner's entertainment networks and CNN have migrated over time to New York or Los Angeles, Turner has kept a pretty steady number of employees in Atlanta in recent years. Atlanta still matters to Turner, though less so than when Ted owned the joint. The NBA on TNT studios are based here. Some of Adult Swim's shows are shot here. Most of CNN's domestic operations are now in New York and D.C., but some HLN's shows are still based here and CNN International and cnn.com is heavily represented out of CNN Center.
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