Report: After the Washington Post ... Amazon chief may buy "CNN"

After owning the Washington Post, bankers told Fox Business - who did not reveal their identities - that the CEO of Amazon and the richest man in the world currently - Jeff Bezos - was considering buying the CNN news network.

However, a person close to Bezos told Fox Business that "there was no talk of this."

It is possible that "CNN" is one of the assets that AT&T plans to sell, because after its acquisition of "Time Warner" company (TimeWarner) - which owns "CNN" - worth 85 billion dollars In 2016, AT&T was in debt of tens of billions of dollars.

Fox Business quoted Rich Greenfield, technology analyst at independent research firm LightShed Partners, as saying AT&T's potential sale to CNN was not shocking.

"But I am a little surprised that CNN is the only asset that will be sold, given that it has a digital platform much stronger than the rest of the Turner Broadcasting properties, which is also part of Warner Media," Greenfield said. Media (formerly Time Warner) owned by AT&T. "

Besides Bezos, Greenfield included other companies that might want to acquire CNN, such as CBS News through its parent company Viacom, as well as NBC News from Through its parent company Comcast.

He said the sale of CNN would make more sense if it was part of a larger sale of all AT&T Turner Broadcasting entities, which include TNT and TBS. ), "TruTV", "Cartoon Network", and "Turner Classic Movies".

Although major competitors, Fox News and MSNBC have lagged behind in the rating, CNN remains a profitable company, making it attractive to interested buyers.

If Bezos takes steps to buy "CNN", he will likely face scrutiny and resonance from US President Donald Trump if he wins the US elections this year.

Trump has been a vocal critic of "CNN" and its current chairman, Jeff Zucker, as well as of the Washington Post newspaper owned by Jeff Bezos himself.

In the first response to the potential purchase of "CNN", Republican Senator Josh Hawley, a member of the Judicial Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Group, retweeted a reporter mentioning the news of the potential purchase, in which he expressed very clearly his opposition to the purchase of "Bezos" network. CNN, "he said," one word for this: No. "

Although Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is less hostile towards "Bezos" and media companies in general, it is unclear how far such an offer will go under the Biden administration.