Jeff Bewkes on Time Warner's Future Under AT&T: 'I'm Not Going Anywhere'

Jeff Bewkes promised Time Warner and AT&T investors that his company’s creativity won’t fall off after the proposed merger officially goes through — after all, he’ll still be there. At least, for a while.

“First of all, I’m not going anywhere,” the Time Warner chairman and CEO said Wednesday morning during a third-quarter 2016 conference call, “and will be here through the closing and into quite a period of transition after that. And then Randall [Stephenson, AT&T CEO] and I will figure out what’s the best way to go over the long run. The same is true of of our division heads and all of our top execs.”

“Most of creative input comes from outside the company, in partnership with us,” Bewkes added when asked specifically about maintaining the HBO home’s strong creative standard. “That’s the essence of Time Warner.”

And Stephenson knows that as well as Bewkes does, the Time Warner top boss said.

Also Read: Time Warner's Q3 Earnings Crush Expectations Thanks to 'Suicide Squad,' CNN (Updated)

“They are very understanding of the need to keep this company excelling and growing and … continuing to be the leading place, which we think we are, at Warner, at Turner and at HBO,” Bewkes continued. “Creative partners outside the company … know that if they come here, we not only have a culture to make the best out of your project, but we have the resources and distribution ability — and now with AT&T, an enhanced ability to innovate.”

Like what, Jeff? More mobile products, more short-form and more virtual reality, for starters, he said.

“That’s why we’re doing this merger, and that’s why creative partners are going to find us an even more attractive place to come in the future.”

Read all about Time Warner’s strong Q3 earnings here. Movies “Suicide Squad” and “Sully” helped out, as did CNN’s TV ratings and HBO-Turner subscriptions revenues.

14 Billion-Dollar Acquisitions Before AT&T-Time Warner (Photos)

Think $85 billion is a lot of cash? Take a tour through the lurid amounts of money dropped on American media and content machines over the years.
1999: Disney Buys ABC
The alliance is such a potent brand that it's hard to imagine them as solo entities, but the $19.5 billion sale gave the Disney company an iconic TV brand to call its own.
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1999: Clear Channel buys AMFM Inc
The radio giant paid $20.6 billion for its rival AMFM, their 830 radio stations, 425,000 billboards and 19 TV stations per Forbes.
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1999: Viacom Buys CBS
Fifteen years ago, the media giant acquired the TV network for $34.1 billion. While the companies would split in 2006, always remember -- history repeats itself.
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2000: Time Warner and AOL Merge
It's often referred to as one of the most disastrous mergers in history. The $186.2 billion price tag seemed visionary at the time, but quickly devolved into a corporate culture way... and the of the dot-com collapse.
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2006: Disney Buys Pixar
In the first of a series of key moves from Disney CEO Bob Iger -- ones that would ensure long-term health and eventually see the company take record-breaking market share -- Steve Jobs was convinced to entrust the animation studio to them for a reported $7.4 billion.
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2009: Disney Buys Marvel
Iger's $4 billion purchase of the comic book studio changed the industry, secured Robert Downey Jr. as the highest paid actor in Hollywood and made a new constellation of stars and film franchises.
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2012: Disney Buys Lucasfilm
Bob Iger's hat trick was completed with a major coup in landing the "Star Wars" universe for $4 billion, which resulted in the No. 3 all-time top grossing film, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
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2013: Comcast Buys Remaining Stake in NBC
After purchasing a majority stake in 2011 for $30 billion, Comcast paid another $16.7 billion to wholly own the TV brand, film studio Universal and its California and Florida theme parks.
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2013: Yahoo Buys Tumblr
It's a relatively small price for a media acquisition, but spend-happy Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer raised a lot of eyebrows by paying $1 billion for the blogging platform Tumblr.
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2014: Facebook Buys WhatApp
While this is a straight-up tech acquisition, it's interesting to note that Facebook paid a staggering $22 billion for the European-based WhatsApp, a mobile application that lets users text for free over WiFi, to bolster their own messaging app. The company has repeatedly said it doesn't care to acquire content engines, but this signals a strong urge to level competition if they ever change their minds.
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2015: Activision Blizzard Buys King Mobile
The video game company literally spent $5.9 billion on fun and games. Mobile game company King counts the most successful app of all time, Candy Crush, and legacy social games like Bubble Witch in its stable. Now Activision gets to develop properties like a just-sold CBS game show based on Candy Crush.
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2016: Comcast Buys Dreamworks
After years of trying to offload his baby, Jeffrey Katzenberg fetched $3.8 billion for DWA and its respective franchises, like "Kung Fu Panda."
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2015: Dalian Wanda Buys Legendary Entertainment
A production company fetching $3.5 billion in a sale was not just jaw-dropping, it was an airhorn that the Chinese invasion into Hollywood had begun. It's also currently the benchmark for what many call inflated valuation... but Wanda's pockets are as deep as their patience is long.
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2016: Verizon Buys Yahoo
In a major deal that’s yet to formally close, Verizon is ponying up $4.83 billion for Yahoo’s core business, which includes advertising, content, search and mobile division.
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