Trump, AT&T CEO meet, don't talk Time Warner merger

AT&T's proposed merger with Time Warner was the topic everyone expected to be atop the agenda for Thursday's meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

Guess not.

After the meeting, the telecom giant released a statement Thursday afternoon that "Mr. Stephenson had a very good meeting with President-Elect Trump earlier today covering a wide-range of topics.  AT&T’s proposed merger with Time Warner was not a topic of discussion."

Instead, the statement said, "the conversation focused on how AT&T can work with the Trump administration to increase investment in the U.S., stimulate job creation in America, and make American companies more competitive globally." AT&T has topped the Progressive Policy Institute's list of U.S. investment "heroes" for the last five years with capital spending of $18.7 billion in 2015, followed by Verizon, which spent $16.5 billion.

During the campaign, then-candidate Trump criticized AT&T’s proposed $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner, saying the merger would give too much market power to one company. AT&T is the largest pay-TV provider with 25.3 million video subscribers, mostly on DirecTV, which AT&T acquired in July 2015. Comcast comes in No. 2 at 22.3 million.

A potential concern raised during a Senate hearing last month is that AT&T could give preferential treatment to its own content, which would include CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., should the merger go through.

Trump's relationship with CNN could hinder the merger, says TVPredictions.com publisher and president Phil Swann. On Tuesday, CNN reported that intelligence agencies had briefed President Obama and the president-elect about unsubstantiated and unverified allegations that Russia operatives might have against potentially compromising personal and financial information about Trump.

"The CNN report on Russia will be the last straw for Trump," said Swann in a post Tuesday. During the next day's press conference, Trump refused to answer a question from CNN's Jim Acosta calling CNN "fake news."

In whatever room Trump and Stephenson had their sit down, would have loved to have been a fly on the wall.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.