AT&T CEO says he won't need to spin off CNN for the $85 billion Time Warner merger to go through

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AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson (L) and Time Warner Inc CEO Jeff Bewkes discuss their companies' proposed merger at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, California October 25, 2016.     REUTERS/Mike Blake

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AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson (left) and Time Warner Inc CEO Jeff Bewkes.

AT&T doesn't need to get rid of CNN in order for its proposed $85 billion merger with Time Warner to go through, according to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

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In an interview with CNBC, Stephenson said spinning off CNN "doesn't seem relevant to approving a deal like this."

Stephenson continued with his argument that the deal is a vertical integration, meaning two different types of companies coming together without removing competition from the market.

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"The market concentrations are the same. Nothing is different," Stephenson said.

Last week, some speculated that AT&T would have to agree to spin off CNN in order to get the Time Warner deal approved, since President-elect Trump has said both publicly and privately (according to Bloomberg) that he's not a fan of the deal. And we all know how Trump feels about CNN.

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Stephenson met with Trump in New York last week, but it's unclear what the two specifically discussed.

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