Wednesday 09 November 2016 8:23 am

This is what Donald Trump’s victory means for AT&T, Time Warner and global M&A

Donald Trump’s presidency represents worrying news for – well, a lot of people.

But dealmakers across the world will be among them, with the Republican expected to be bad news for global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity.

In the lead-up to the election, Trump pledged that he would not allow the biggest deal of the year – AT&T’s $85bn acquisition of Time Warner – to go through.

AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.

Last month, in a survey of 1,600 global dealmakers by Intralinks, 56 per cent said they believed Trump as president would have a negative impact of M&A activity.

They also appeared complacent, however: some 15 per cent said they expected him to win the race to the White House.

Intralinks’ Philip Whitchelo said at the time:

There’s clearly an overwhelming consensus among dealmakers that Hillary Clinton will be the next US president and that Donald Trump would be bad for global M&A.

Despite the upcoming election and the prospect of Trump, October was one of the biggest months for global M&A in history – perhaps explained by the overwhelming feeling among dealmakers that Clinton would triumph.