Judge Leon ruled that AT&T can acquire Time Warner. In this column, I’d like to discuss the broad implications of the deal, and more specifically what it means for the telecom and mobile landscape.  

First off, congratulations to AT&T. They stuck to their guns and didn’t agree to any of the initial —  and unreasonable — DOJ terms to sell off piece parts of Time Warner to get the deal through. Hopefully, AT&T will be more successful with Time Warner than was AOL which, ironically now sits in the hands of arch-rival Verizon’ unfortunately named Oath.  

Some of the benefits of the deal will be felt apparent to consumers within a few months. Expect some additional bennies and content bundles for AT&T wireless subscribers. HBO for free, a la T-Mobile Netflix? In the more medium term, marrying the huge Time Warner ad inventory with the insights on AT&T-DTV’s customers will create value. It will be a longer term project to build a more effective ad targeting platform, pulling together the content, ad inventory, and customer data in an effective – and responsible – manner.