All three couldnt make the cut, while Bewkes turned the companys focus to a connected triad: news, sports, and entertainment. And, along with Amazon and other tech companies, it has redefined how people consume entertainment the industry earthquake that compelled AT&T and Time Warner to get together in Bewkes' final act. Time Warner's merger with AOL, completed just before the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, had been a bust. Bewkes, 66, stands to leave Time Warner with a big payout. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has cited vertical integration as the reason he felt AT&T needed Time Warner. One way or another, in the long run, we think its a business that can grow, although it isnt growing as fast as television.. You may change your billing preferences at any time in the Customer Center or call He would travel around the country, shilling his digital wares to hotel owners who were not quite sure what they were getting into. WIRED Media Group 10 Things You Didnt Know about Northwestern Mutual CEO John E. Schlifske, UF Canvas Study Says Global E-Learning Market to Reach $325 Billion by 2025, 20 Things You Didnt Know about TrueCar. "If you are in an acquisition and somebody pays a premium for your stock, by definition it means something has to change," Stankey is quoted as saying in Miller's book, according to the WSJ. 2012: Disney Buys LucasfilmBob Iger's hat trick was completed with a major coup in landing the "Star Wars" universe for $4 billion, which resulted in the No. Given their name, it should come as no surprise to learn that electronic noses are devices that can be used to detect smells. The merger bets that AT&T distribution pipes will extract increased value. viet gwent kiss tintation vs adore. Youre making a false silo there, he growled at one point, when Scott noted that Google derives some 85% of its ad revenue from search engines. "What's important in the digital world is the data of the people using the content," Bewkes said. All times are ET. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2019 and/or its affiliates. AT&T eliminated tens of thousands of jobs across its media and telecom divisions after the Time Warner merger. Learn how your comment data is processed. It's catching up to HBO in worldwide subscribers. Web* Bei Fragen einfach anrufen oder schreiben: +49 (0)176 248 87 424. grant williams actor cause of death; thierry godard interview english; thomas edison descendants We are delighted that you'd like to resume your subscription. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes saw his 2012 pay remain pretty steady at $25.9 million. With over 10 years experience he's covered businesses, CEOs, and investments. 2009: Disney Buys MarvelIger'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. NEWS ANALYSIS When a federal judge greenlighted AT&Ts $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, Jeff Bewkes, 10-year CEO of the media Please enable JavaScript in your browser for a better user experience. Maybe the reason is he has been through two divorces and chooses to keep his exes out of the media light a harsh reality that Bewkes knows well. His preference is to keep a low profile both in his personal life and as a CEO. Anyone who has heard of HBO, the Home Box Office channel, has heard of at least one of these programs The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City. Garrett by trade is a personal finance freelance writer and journalist. In 2016, Time Warner acquired a 10% stake in Hulu for $583 million, joining majority owners 21st Century Fox, Disney and Comcast in the SVOD (and online TV) platform that continues to hemorrhage money. Mr. Plepler left after clashes over strategy with John Stankey, who was tapped to run the entityrebranded as WarnerMediaand now is chief executive of AT&T. Merging with AOL in 2000 added another layer with what was the dominant internet portal of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The company's stock rose around 30 percent last year, but his compensation was virtually unchanged. They actually went up, didnt they? he asked. Theres a niche shift to rental, kiosk rental, thats less profitable, Bewkes told a Wall Street confab in 2012. [We need to] make [content] ownership more easy and valuable, which we havent so far succeeded to do. While some have inherited huge sums of money, others have, Read More The 10 Richest People in JapanContinue, Fanslyis a social media platform that lets content creators interact directly with fans. Just these two monetary rewards totaled more than he made the previous year $32 million. As it turns out, the man who sold Time Warner to AT&T doesn't think that's sound strategy. The Wall Street Journal received an advance copy of the book and published an article today describing Bewkes' comments: While Mr. Bewkes doesn't express regret over the decision to sell to AT&T, he said he is angry about how his team of top executives and the staff were treated. Customer Service. 2000: Time Warner and AOL MergeIt's often referred to as one of the most disastrous mergers in history. However he does like to take on other topics involving some of his personal interests like automobiles, future technologies, and anything else that could change the world. A 304-unit townhome apartment neighborhood is anticipated to start construction this summer (2022). It is the legacy that I have been the steward of, he told The Times. Discovery Company. 2006: Disney Buys PixarIn the first of a series of key moves from Disney CEO Bob Iger -- ones that would ensure long-term health and eventually see the companytake record-breaking market share -- Steve Jobs was convinced to entrust the animation studio to them for a reported $7.4 billion. AOL was later acquired by Verizon (VZ). I compete with them. DecisionOne Dental Partners Crystal Lake, IL office. When AT&T acquired Time Warner last year for $104 billion, the strategic rationale behind the deal was "vertical integration" combining content and distribution within one company. I dont run their company.. Time Warner's total return, which includes dividends, has surged by nearly 260% since he took over as The rental community features a ranch townhome design that gives each resident their own attached garage and ADA accessible entrance. Stankey took over as AT&T CEO when Stephenson retired in mid-2020. Related: Top Time Warner executives set for $180 million payout. The City Council reviewed and approved the Preliminary PUD plans at the July 19, 2022 City Council meeting. Time Warner had recently come to a settlement with activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who was calling for a breakup. Bewkes said the acquisition would help level the SVOD playing field while increasing our companys exposure to the secular growth in over-the-top.. But with HBO Now, FilmStruck, Boom or others still on the drawing board, he said, we need a technology partner, a helping company in order to bring any service to market. Your California Privacy Rights | Do Not Sell My Personal Information Bewkes is quoted about the aftermath of the $108 billion merger in a James Andrew Miller book called Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, which will be released on November 23. 2016: Comcast Buys DreamworksAfter years of trying to offload his baby, Jeffrey Katzenberg fetched $3.8 billion for DWA and its respective franchises, like "Kung Fu Panda.". During his tenure, HBO invested more in original programming and created water-cooler shows that gave people more reasons to subscribe. What is Fansly and Can it Compete with Onlyfans? 9. S mais um site jeff bewkes intuition partners Movies Suicide Squad and Sully helped out, as did CNNs TV ratings and HBO-Turner subscriptions revenues. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Comcast acquired NBCUniversal in two deals in 2011 and 2013. Jeff Bewkes promised Time Warner and AT&T investors that his companys creativity wont fall off after the proposed merger officially goes through after all, hell still be there. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. We want to hear from you! His politics are not so easily figured out. In an exclusive interview with CNBC, ex-Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said he doesn't think vertical integration is necessary for either a content or a distribution company. Analysts say that he is more a proponent of Big Media than he is of a particular Democratic cause or platform. Bewkes took over as Time Warner CEO in 2008, replacing Richard Parsons at a time when the company was under pressure to slim down. The AT&T employee count dropped to 214,840 after the DirecTV spinoff was completed in August. The transaction enables plugging WarnerMedia content into AT&Ts direct-to-consumer connections for on-demand video consumption that is sweeping media, as the big bundle of cable TV channels erodes. Time Warner had lost almost $100 billion in 2002, mostly because of a writedown of AOL. "No division should subsidize another," Mr. Bewkes says in an interview. This article also has been updated with Time Warner's total shareholder return. You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling 1. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It was a catchphrase reiterated on fiscal calls underscoring Bewkes confidence (or arrogance) that Netflix needed Warner Bros. TV shows and movies more than it needed to coddle streaming video. Time Warner had no further comment. However, it is interesting to note that electronic noses can detect tastes, Read More What is an Electronic Nose and Do They Exist Yet?Continue, ProSight Specialty Insurance Group, Inc. is also known as ProSight Global. And Stephenson knows that as well as Bewkes does, the Time Warner top boss said. And HBO, Bewkes' former home, kept churning out buzzworthy shows, including the hits "Game of Thrones," "Veep" and "Westworld.". Workplace Challenges: The Experts Weigh In, How Bebe Rexha Achieved a Net Worth of $10 Million, The 20 Worst Cities for Human Trafficking in the World, How Simu Liu Achieved a Net Worth of $4 Million, The 20 Best Chevy Muscle Cars of All-Time. Stankey also said that "he still believes in the vision behind AT&T's purchase" but that he made the spinoff deal with Discovery in part because investors "refused to give us credit for [the] progress" made with Time Warner. Required fields are marked *. But it was more than streaming to Bewkes. Tying distribution and content together under the same umbrella isn't necessary or a particularly coherent strategy as long as data between distributors and content makers is shared, Bewkes said. With over 18 years of experience, Todds efforts have been to strengthen and He was directly responsible for some of HBOs most popular shows. Watch: How AOL went from one of the largest media companies to a shadow of its former self. SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER, FIRST TAKE, Time Warner's Q3 Earnings Crush Expectations Thanks to 'Suicide Squad,' CNN (Updated), Chinese invasion into Hollywood had begun. But the truth is, what is seen as a risk by many of the critics ends up being exactly what needs to be done. "I believe that if you don't create a pure vertical integrated capability from distribution all the way through content creation and advertising models, you're going to have a hard time competing," Stephenson said in 2018. Bewkes bulked up on the programming side on both the small and big screens. AT&T in May 2021 announced a plan to spin-off WarnerMedia into a new company only three years after buying Time Warner. WebTime Warner chairman-CEO Jeff Bewkes received a windfall of stock awards in 2017, pushing his total compensation for the year to $49 million.Bewkes' 2017 haul marks a While Comcast has largely kept NBCUniversal separate from its cable arm, AT&T has suggested it plans to eventually bundle a national wireless service with its streaming video services, which include AT&T Now and the soon-to-be-released HBO Max. "He did a reasonably good job.". Time Warner was also once a vertically integrated company, owning regional cable and internet provider Time Warner Cable and networks such as HBO, TNT and TBS, and the Warner Bros. production studio. This will be one of his legacies; that shareholders were a priority in every major decision he would make. Bewkes spun off both AOL and Time Warner Cable in 2009, and he later spun off magazine publishing arm Time Inc. in 2014. He built what was left into an $85 billion acquisition target. jeff bewkes intuition partners. Share & Bookmark, Press Enter to show all options, press Tab go to next option. Bewkes was criticized in some corners for not preparing Time Warner for the future cable cutters. Bewkes and the Time Warner board decided to sell Time Warner to AT&T for $107.50 per share, more than 26% higher than Murdochs $85-per-share offer. Guzman Y Gomez is a fast casual restaurant from Sydney, Australia who has put their fresh spin on a taqueria! AT&T struck a deal with Discovery, Inc. to combine WarnerMedia's and Discovery's assets into a "standalone global entertainment company" and said the transaction would close in mid-2022. SinceFanslyhosts adult content, its frequently compared to OnlyFans and has even been described as an OnlyFans competitors. This time around, Time Warner President Jeffrey Bewkes told the magazine to look elsewhere for partners. 3 all-time top grossing film, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens.". "Bewkes kept the cable networks growing by focusing on sports and news. How Chipotle's Stock Price More Than Quadrupled in Five Years. As a pure wireless company, AT&T would not have been as focused on companies such as Netflix and Amazon. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. The Harvard dropout has made Facebook the preeminent social-media platform and a sociopolitical force, all while posting record profits. Scott spent about 45 minutes wending his way through internal corporate documents and Bewkes own statements during morning testimony to try to undermine his characterization of tech giants as an existential threat. "Mr. Bewkes first planted the seed of a sale of Time Warner to AT&T in 2014, as he was looking to fend off Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox's takeover attempt," the WSJ article said. The mixed-use development offers a variety of housing options, a shopping/dining destination and new park space that will extend the natural beauty of Three Oaks towards Route 14. 5. Jeff Bewkes promised Time Warner and AT&T investors that his companys creativity wont fall off after the proposed merger officially goes through after all, hell still be there. yonex ezone 100 vs babolat pure drive. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox, Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services., 2023 CNBC LLC. 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.. Jeff Bewkes promised Time Warner and AT&T investors that his companys creativity wont fall off after the proposed merger officially goes through after all, hell Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Time Warner chairman-CEO Jeff Bewkes received a windfall of stock awards in 2017, pushing his total compensation for the year to $49 million.Bewkes' 2017 haul marks a 50% increase from the $32.6 million he took home in 2016. AOL refused, saying Sports Illustrated had little to offer. What is an Electronic Nose and Do They Exist Yet? Read our affiliate link policy. But AT&T acquired pay-TV distributor DirecTV in 2015 for $67 billion. And SVOD was just rental on steroids. Bewkes believed Tsujiharas digital expertise (he once headed short-lived digital platform Fandom.com during the dotcom era) would make a better fit going forward. "Unless you can integrate the data from distribution, it makes it harder to develop and have good effective programming," Bewkes said. The public hearing for the plan where members of the public can provide feedback on the proposed project was held on April 6, 2022. As we will see in other facts on this list, he knows his business and knows when to take a risk. View open jobs at this location. We want to hear from you. At the time, "Mr. Bewkes bumped into Randall Stephenson, AT&T's then-chief executive, at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, and told him, 'our conversation ought to be with you' instead of Rupert Murdoch, Fox's then-chief. June 13, 2018. "Bewkes was handed a mess from the AOL acquisition and was charged with cleaning that up," said Harold "Hal" Vogel, an analyst with Vogel Capital Management who has followed the media and entertainment industry since the 1970s. Your Government Departments Community Development. Shortly after AT&T assumed ownership of Time Warner, Stankey told HBO employees at a town hall-style meeting that the network wasn't making enough money and needed to produce more shows. For more information regarding this development proposal, please contact Katie Cowlin, Director of Community Development at (815) 356-3798 or kcowlin@crystallake.org. We have been trained to work with a variety of issues-Depression, Anger, Anxiety (group and individual formats), Bipolar disorder, Trauma, Child and Adolescent We compete all over the world, he said. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Indeed, streaming video is now part of Bewkes mental resum, if not more. WebJeffrey Bewkes, Self: A Tribute to Sheila Nevins: Newhouse Mirror Awards. That deal pushed AT&T further toward becoming a media company. And then Randall [Stephenson, AT&T CEO] and I will figure out whats the best way to go over the long run. Bewkes "agreed to remain with the company as a senior advisor during a transition period," an AT&T press release at the time noted. "No division should subsidize another," Mr. Bewkes says Ad Choices, Stankey told HBO employees at a town hall-style meeting. This employer has claimed their Employer Profile and is engaged in the Glassdoor community. But it seems to be more a part of his personality, to not get caught up in the media mogul mindset, and to just go about his business without a lot of hoopla. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. 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. 2. Follow @CNBCtech on Twitter for the latest tech industry news. "One of the jobs I need to do in carrying AT&T forward is ensuring we come up with a strategy that the investor base will tolerate and work through and give us the right credit for," Stankey said. Word from both parties is that the defense may wrap up its case as soon as Tuesday. After a few years with trying out banking as a career, he joined HBO when it was just a small company trying to find footing in the pay for cable industry. "He followed the right path by simplifying the company and focusing it on its core entertainment assets," Vogel said. As a If digital advertisers are able to target consumers with messages delivered through search or other ways, that takes away from television.. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2008-2023, Glassdoor, Inc. "Glassdoor" and logo are registered trademarks of Glassdoor, Inc. Morningstar: 2019 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. From Disney-ABC to Wanda and Legendary, a look back at major media deals with staggering price tags. 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. A Division of NBCUniversal. Customer Service. Netflix has more than twice the market value of Time Warner. Bewkes departed WarnerMedia in 2018. This is the opinion of some analysts who say that despite his many successes in the past, Bewkes, 66, had simply fallen behind the times. So It Redesigned Its Iconic Can. And HBO has always been near and dear to his heart," said Alan Gould, an analyst at Loop Capital who has followed Time Warner since before Time merged with Warner Communications in 1990. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. Sign In. Bewkes worked up to chief financial officer and president before becoming CEO of the network in 1995. As CEO for the past decade, Bewkes focused Time Warner (TWX) on its entertainment, news and sports properties. A new multi-family residential development is moving forward at the southwest corner of Crystal Lake Avenue and Main Street. No one likes to be micromanaged, and that includes Jeff Bewkes, former chairman and CEO of Time Warner, who in the new book Tinderbox presents his side of On that question, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes is coolly confident. It is named after Crystal Lake, a lake located 1.6 miles (2.6 km) west AOL was slow to adapt to competition from cable companies offering cheaper and faster broadband, and subscribers left the service in droves. During the 2016 election, Bewkes said the threats against the freedom of the press were greater from Democrats than Trump. Among them were "Oz," "The Larry Sanders Show," "Entourage" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm.". That's better than the S&P 500 during his tenure. Bewkes joined HBO in 1979, when pay cable networks were a novelty and mainly showed movies a couple of months after they were in theaters. Overseer to the worlds most popular search engine and video platform is an unseen hand guiding the global dissemination of information and culture. Please rest assured to buy! How these wealthy people accrued so much money varies from one person to the next. The platform has not even been around for a year, and, Read More 20 Things You Didnt Know about ClassContinue. His college years were not spent studying business. As Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu have reshaped the media distribution, Bewkes simply changed the narrative. While former CEO Parsons notoriously bragged it would be cold day in hell before he entered a video store, Bewkes lauded the rollout of UltraViolet the cloud-based digital content platform that has seen many of its major studio partners, Warner included, migrate to the competing Movies Anywhere platform. Time Warner's total return, which includes dividends, has surged by nearly 260% since he took over as CEO. The problem has been internet companies such as Amazon and Netflix and cable providers such as Comcast and Charter haven't been willing to share the data, said Bewkes. After taking over at Time Warner, he dumped what were perceived to be essential profit makers for the company. When Scott drew Bewkes attention to documents prepared by the defense team showing a host of competitors from the international tech ranks, he paused on Chinese e-commerce giant Baidu (whose name he mispronounced as BAH-doo). Not Bewkes. The CEO testimony marked a key turn in the high stakes case, which miraculously may be heading into the home stretch. "We didn't think they would go to such a level of malpractice as to not listen to anybody even though they themselves had no experience in those areas.". 3. Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. Scott further tested Bewkes patience by systematically taking inventory of efforts to launch digital and SVOD services across Time Warner, which, Bewkes conceded, both predate merger talks and continue to this day. The magazine wanted to merge its Web site with the AOL Web portal to create a massive sports site. Find the DecisionOne Dental Partners Crystal Lake address. The company is a private insurance company based in the United States. In 2014, HBO for the first time licensed catalog programming to Prime Video a move Bewkes said meant getting top dollar for programming with little marginal value on the open market. With AT&T having also spun-off DirecTV into a subsidiary, the telecom company will focus on what it probably should have prioritized all along: broadband. Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters. Randall Stephenson, then-chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T and Jeff Bewkes, then-chairman and chief executive officer of Time Warner, a few days after the AT&T acquisition of Warner was announced in October 2016. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. If, by chance, regulators throw up too many roadblocks, Warner Bros., HBO, and Turner will WebSince 1994, Todd has compiled an outstanding career in both the public and private capital markets. Jeffrey Bewkes was born on May 25, 1952 in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. In 2013, Bewkes picked Warner Bros. Home Entertainment boss Kevin Tsujihara over other more-established studio executives to run Warner Bros., replacing Barry Meyer. Two years later, Time Warner struck a deal with AT&T for $85 billion. It will likely be a couple of weeks from that point before U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon issues his opinion. That didn't happen, he said. This office is the major DecisionOne Dental Partners Crystal Lake, IL area location. . AT&T's vertical integration strategy centers on making its wireless product more appealing by offering exclusive or discounted content, while also being better positioned to innovate around mobile viewing by having the data on what customers are watching. But they have slightly lagged total returns of big media rivals like Disney (DIS). 2022 Cable News Network. "It's not so much a question of whether a piece of content or content provider owns a distribution entity, because frankly there will always be multiple competing content developers and competing distribution outlets," said Bewkes. All Rights Reserved. Former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes says that he and other board members were surprised that AT&T mismanaged the media company after buying it in Link to City Council agenda packet with plans: July 19th City Council. In part to hedge his DirecTV bet, Stephenson decided to acquire Time Warner. He achieved his performance goals for the year, adding to the raise with a $14.7 million performance bonus. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. What youre missing is that the competition for advertising isnt just about television, he told DOJ attorney Claude Scott during his third hour of testimony this afternoon. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has since watched millions of customers cancel DirecTV's satellite TV service as the quality of online viewing has improved. Get this page going by posting your interview experience. All rights reserved. International operations are a third of our revenue.. The next step in the approval process is for the development team to submit Final Planned Unit Development plans for review and approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council. Get Price. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. No one likes to be micromanaged, and that includes Jeff Bewkes, former chairman and CEO of Time Warner, who in the new book Tinderbox presents his side of the story on the AT&T acquisition of Time Warner. It didnt exactly work out the way it was planned or, at least, not like Bewkes planned it. Guzman Y Gomez is constructing their second United States location at 5459 Northwest Highway next to Raising Cane's. And Time Inc. was acquired by Meredith (MDP), the owner of Better Homes & Gardens, earlier this year. The companys financial track record under Bewkes speaks for itself. Mr. Stephenson replied, 'hold that thought maybe one day we'll talk.'". He noted the same flawed ideas helped doom the AOL-Time Warner merger in the early 2000s. Former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, who engineered the sale of the entertainment giant to AT&T, is now describing the phone companys management of what has become WarnerMedia as malpractice. AT&T bought Time Warner in 2016 for $85 billion as part of a strategy to acquire entertainment assets to bolster its mobile phone Those awards were higher last year for Bewkes and other top executives as a means of providing retention bonuses. The unnamed partner will be responsible for all TiVo product sales outside the, BLU-RAY REVIEW: Street 3/6/18; Disney/Marvel; Action; Box Office $314.97 million; $29.99 DVD, $39.99 Blu-ray, $39.99 UHD BD; Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive material. - Nov 15, 2021 5:43 pm UTC. HBO generated $6.3 billion in revenue and $2.2 billion in operating earnings last year, more than 20% of Time Warner's sales and profit. Former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes discusses content strategy. "If you paid a premium for an operation and you continue to operate it exactly the same way, you never pay back the premium.". AT&T had273,210 employeesimmediately after buying Time Warner in mid-2018 and226,840 as of June 30, 2021. 2013: Yahoo Buys TumblrIt'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. He apparently proposed the sale to AT&T several years before it happened.