Mediagazer: AT&T agrees to acquire DirecTV in stock-and-cash deal for $95 per share (AT&T)

9:40 AM ET, May 19, 2014

Top News:

Editor's Exit at The Times Puts Tensions on Display — Back in 2010, before she became executive editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson sent me a handwritten attaboy note about a big story. It still hangs in my cubicle: “You wrote a story about the trashing of a once great American institution and people never tire of that.”

Ken Auletta / New Yorker:

Guardian's Gibson weighs in on NYT and Abramson: “Jill should not have been hung out to dry” — Why Jill Abramson Was Fired: Part III — In my last post exploring why Jill Abramson was fired as executive editor of the New York Times by Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, @jswatz, @buzzfeedandrew, @jamesrbuk, @moorehn, @molly_knight, @nycjim, @jayrosen_nyu, @dylanbyers, @jonathanchait, @alexberenson, @kateaurthur, @jamilsmith and The Rumpus.net

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Dear Jill: From One Pushy Media Dame to Another — Let me be perfectly clear when it comes to ousted New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson: She has, on some occasions I have spent time with her, scared the bejesus out of me. — That said, it was in a very good way.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, @joshuatopolsky, Mashable, @choire, @antderosa, Poynter, @joannastern, @moorehn and The Wrap

Lexi Mainland / @lexinyt:

Wake Forest graduation begins at 9 this morning. Jill Abramson's speech will be livestreamed here http://go.wfu.edu/...

Discussion: Capital New York and The Huffington Post

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Times Editor Inherits Business Battles Fought by Abramson — Dean Baquet is a veteran of the turf battles between editorial and business departments. As the new executive editor of the New York Times Co., he'll have to navigate that terrain at a moment when the lines between newsgathering and moneymaking are blurring as never before.

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Sources: Sulzberger fired Abramson because he felt she misled him, others in recruiting Gibson

Discussion: Fox News, bookforum.com, New York Magazine, @ryantate, @karaswisher, Pressing Issues, Capital New York, @freddoso, @lpolgreen, @catekustanczy, @kailijoy, @tcarmody, @noahshachtman, @juddlegum, @dankennedy_nu, @morningmoneyben and Politico

Susan B. Glasser / Politico:
Female journalists in leadership positions keep getting stuck in “editing while female” trap

Discussion: Washington Post, @erikwemple, @themarkberman, @lheron, @dannysullivan, @buzzfeedben, @davidfolkenflik and @miriamelder

AT&T:

AT&T agrees to acquire DirecTV in stock-and-cash deal for $95 per share — AT&T to Acquire DIRECTV — Creates Content Distribution Leader Across Mobile, Video & Broadband Platforms — The premier pay TV brand with the best content relationships now poised to deliver video to multiple screens …

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Forbes, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, @tonyromm, WGBH News, Re/code, @tonyromm, Variety, Home Media Magazine, Electronista, Washington Post, Engadget, TechCrunch, The Verge, Mashable and Gigaom

P.J. Bednarski / MediaPost:

Chernin Group's alliance with AT&T for over-the-top video gains significance with DirecTV deal — Connect The Dots: AT&T/DirecTV Merger Leading To Major Over-The-Top Play? — The media world is just now digesting AT&T's proposed $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV but people …

Discussion: Reuters and Wall Street Journal

BuzzFeed:
AT&T Buys DirecTV For $67 Billion In Second Major Deal To Reshape TV Industry

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @peterlauria3, Variety and New York Times

Nathan Mattise / Ars Technica: AT&T and DirecTV vow to follow FCC's 2010 net neutrality guidelines for three years after deal closes

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
DirecTV deal valued at $48.5B, or $67.1B with debt; AT&T frames purchase as a way to extend internet access to rural areas

Discussion: Re/code and WGBH News

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion: Sources — Deal would be biggest ever for YouTube — Google's YouTube has reached a deal to buy Twitch, a popular videogame-streaming company, for more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the pact.

Discussion: Forbes, Guardian, Ars Technica, New York Times, TechCrunch, Fortune, @errorjustin, @jenabellalol, The Next Web, @drew, Tech2, The Verge, Electronista, Pocket-lint, @amir, The Daily Caller, Engadget, Re/code, Business Insider, Washington Post, @amir, VentureBeat, @drew, iMore, The Verge, USA Today, Gigaom, Digital Spy, Mashable, Beet.TV, 24/7 Wall St. and Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal:

Google's acquisition talks with Twitch still at an early stage — Google in Talks About Possible Acquisition of Twitch — Google's Talks With Live Video-Streaming Service at Early Stage — Google Inc. is in talks about a possible acquisition of Twitch, a fast-growing live video-streaming service …

Discussion: @bryfitz, Guardian, @ow and @benfritz

Mark Potts / American Journalism Review:

What the New York Times Innovation Report Says About the State (and Future) of Digital News — For those of us who have spent the past decade or two on the front lines of trying to make newspapers and other legacy news organizations more digital, the internal innovation report that leaked …

Discussion: Logic+Emotion

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:
The End Of The Print New York Times

Discussion: All Digitocracy and @peterlauria3

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

William and Kate ‘embarrassed’ by hacking revelations, says NoW reporter — Clive Goodman tells Old Bailey the police and CPS decided to ‘ringfence’ interception of royals to keep them out of a trial — The royal family has been “embarrassed” by revelations that the News of the World …

Discussion: @lisaocarroll, @lisaocarroll, @lisaocarroll, thedrum.com and BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Michael Wolff / USA Today:

Europe's “right to be forgotten” serves as a brake against the ever-growing power of Google — The right to be forgotten by Google — Google is too big, too octopus-like, too invasive, too knowing, too powerful. Anybody disagree that Google offers a creative scenario of a dystopian …

Discussion: @securityhumor, @raju and @ryanchittum

Sarah Moroz / New York Times:

French newspaper Libération hangs in the balance as shareholders push change, staff revolt — Libération Covering a Civil War. Its Own. — PARIS — What would Jean-Paul Sartre say? — Libération, the left-wing newspaper co-founded by the French philosopher and critic in 1973, is fighting for its life.

Discussion: @gordonrussell1, @nousjournal and @oliviertesquet