Bitcoin at February lows after Musk tweets; AT&T merging WarnerMedia with Discovery– business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• Latest: AT&T's to spin off WarnerMedia, merge with rival Discovery
• Deal brings Warner Bros, HBO, CNN together with Discovery's TV shows

Earlier:

• Introduction: Bitcoin plunged last night after Musk tweet...
• ...then Musk clarifies speculation": Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin
• Analysts: Bitcoin has lost upward momentum
• UK faces labour shortage' as Covid and Brexit fuel exodus of overseas workers

2.19pm BST

The merged company will be 71% owned by AT&T's shareholders and 29% by Discovery's.

AT&T is receiving $43bn (a mixture of cash, and a reduction in the telecom's giant's debt).

Other details, including the future of WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar in the new company and how the combined properties and services will be arrange have yet to be worked out, executives said on a call with reporters after the deal was announced.

The opportunities in direct to consumer streaming are rapidly evolving, and to keep pace and maintain a leadership position, several things are required -- global scale, access to capital, a broad array of high quality content and industry best talent," AT&T chief executive John Stankey told a news briefing.

2.06pm BST

The WarnerMedia-Discovery merger also highlights the need for large amounts of quality content to compete with Netflix and Disney+, following the move towards streamed TV (which accelerated in the pandemic).

Ben Barringer, equity research analyst at Quilter Cheviot, explains:

AT&T are just a few years late to the party, but it is better too late than never at all. AT&T has finally realised that internet streaming television is a thing, and to be successful you need scale and great content.

To put subscriber numbers into context, HBO Max has 64 million subscribers and Discovery has 15 million. At a combined 79 million total subscribers, the new streaming service has a long way to go to achieve the same scale as Netflix or Disney+, which have 207 million and 104 million subscribers respectively.