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   television studio was so successful. Premium drama could go to HBO. But   
   shows with mass market appeal, like “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory”   
   were better off at the ad-supported broadcast networks. Hollywood talent   
   was attracted to Time Warner’s neutrality.   
      
   What AT&T brought to the mix was data from its DirecTV and cellular   
   customers. Data could arguably help it compete for advertising dollars   
   with Google and Facebook. Mr. Bewkes argued that AT&T should sell that   
   data to all comers, including competitors like Comcast, Fox and Disney,   
   expanding Time Warner’s longstanding strategy.   
      
   As Mr. Bewkes recalled the exchange, one director said AT&T would never   
   share data with Comcast. “We hate them,” he said.   
      
   “Do you think I love them?” Mr. Bewkes responded. “This is not about who   
   you like.”   
      
   “They looked at me like I was from another planet,” Mr. Bewkes said.   
      
   Mr. Stephenson said he had listened carefully to what Mr. Bewkes had to   
   say, but concluded Warner Media had to go all-in on streaming. Mr. Bewkes   
   was “too cautious,” he said.   
      
   A ‘herculean’ trial ends   
   After AT&T refused to divest either DirecTV or Turner, the Justice   
   Department followed through with its threat to block the merger in   
   November 2017.   
      
   “It might have been smart to walk away from the deal then,” Mr. Stephenson   
   said, because the lawsuit meant extensive delays, management distractions   
   and enormous litigation costs. “But I’d made a commitment to Jeff Bewkes,   
   and I intended to honor that.” He also was opposed to any settlement that   
   suggested he was willing to compromise CNN’s editorial independence, he   
   said.   
      
   The Justice Department argued that the combination would be an   
   anticompetitive juggernaut that would use its enormous power “as a weapon   
   to hinder competition.”   
      
   Mr. Delrahim, at the Justice Department, stated repeatedly that the   
   decision to file the suit had nothing to do with Mr. Trump’s hostility to   
   CNN, but few at AT&T or Time Warner believed that.   
      
   After a federal trial that the judge, Richard J. Leon, called “historic,”   
   “epic” and “herculean,” he issued an opinion on June 12, 2018, rejecting   
   all the government’s arguments.   
      
   About a month later, about 50 AT&T executives, lawyers and bankers   
   gathered in a private room at Midtown Manhattan’s Peninsula Hotel to   
   celebrate.   
      
   A handful of Time Warner executives and their wives were also on hand,   
   seated at a table together. Two were the newly departed chief executive,   
   Mr. Bewkes, and strategy chief, Mr. Olafsson. Still with the company were   
   the heads of its three divisions: Warner Bros., HBO and Turner   
   Broadcasting.   
      
   AT&T’s general counsel, David McAtee, presented “awards,” or “mementos” —   
   courtroom artist renderings of witnesses at the antitrust trial. Mr.   
   Stephenson and Mr. Stankey each got one, as did Mr. Bewkes and various   
   lawyers.   
      
   The executives’ appearances on the witness stand — indeed, the entire   
   antitrust proceeding — were pretty much the last thing Time Warner leaders   
   wanted to be reminded of.   
      
   Far from being welcomed into the fold at that dinner, the three Warner   
   division heads were largely ignored. While they recognized that Mr. McAtee   
   and his colleagues were trying to be gracious, from the Warner vantage   
   point they were just another corporate conquest in a long line of deals.   
      
   After he got home that night, Mr. Plepler called Mr. Bewkes. “Could you   
   believe that?” he asked.   
      
   “I know,” Mr. Bewkes said, recalling their conversation in a recent   
   interview. “I’m sorry, but that’s who they are.”   
      
   As Mr. Olafsson later put it, “No one who was there that night could   
   possibly believe we had ended up in the right hands.”   
      
   ‘Oil and water’   
      
   Probably no two people better embodied the stark cultural differences   
   between AT&T and Time Warner, now renamed Warner Media, than Mr. Plepler,   
   HBO’s chief executive, and his new boss, Mr. Stankey. Mr. Plepler told   
   friends that he and Mr. Stankey were “oil and water.”   
      
   A 28-year veteran of Time Warner and HBO, Mr. Plepler, then 59, had   
   started in public relations, knew just about everyone in journalism and   
   Hollywood, and loved schmoozing with producers, writers, actors and   
   journalists.   
      
   He was out on the town in New York or Hollywood or hosting dinner parties   
   at his Upper East Side townhouse nearly every night. During his tenure,   
   HBO had amassed 160 Emmy Awards and launched the ratings juggernaut “Game   
   of Thrones.” He was perpetually tan and rarely wore a tie, preferring navy   
   blazers and open-collar white shirts.   
      
   One of Mr. Plepler’s favorite sayings was “Culture eats strategy for   
   breakfast,” a quote from the management guru Peter Drucker, meaning that   
   the best-laid plans will run aground without the support of an   
   enthusiastic work force.   
      
   Mr. Stankey had spent three decades moving up the ranks at AT&T after   
   graduating with a degree in finance and getting an M.B.A. at the   
   University of California, Los Angeles. Imposingly tall, with a square jaw   
   and deep voice, he looked the part of a DC Comics superhero in civilian   
   garb. He wasn’t a natural conversationalist and didn’t seem comfortable   
   mingling at the Hollywood events where he was now expected to appear.   
      
   Basic differences between Mr. Stankey and Mr. Plepler were on display at   
   an HBO forum on June 19, 2018, to introduce Mr. Stankey to HBO’s roughly   
   1,500 employees. Mr. Plepler kicked off the session with a video welcoming   
   their new boss, featuring lighthearted greetings from HBO stars Larry   
   David, Bill Maher and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. (John Oliver, host of HBO’s   
   “Last Week Tonight,” had flatly refused to participate, saying no good   
   would come from AT&T’s takeover, according to HBO’s longtime   
   communications head, Quentin Schaffer, who helped put the video together.)   
      
   The charm offensive had minimal apparent effect. Mr. Stankey wasted little   
   time praising HBO’s past success. He said HBO needed to significantly   
   expand its content production to achieve his and AT&T’s strategic vision.   
      
   “We need hours a day” from viewers, Mr. Stankey said, according to a   
   transcript of the meeting. “It’s not hours a week, and it’s not hours a   
   month. We need hours a day. You are competing with devices that sit in   
   people’s hands that capture their attention every 15 minutes.”   
      
   At another point, he invoked his spouse: “You will work very hard, and   
   this next year will — my wife hates it when I say this — feel like   
   childbirth. You’ll look back on it and be very fond of it, but it’s not   
   going to feel great while you’re in the middle of it.”   
      
   While trying to be a congenial host, Mr. Plepler pushed back, repeating   
   his mantra that when it came to content, “more isn’t better — only better   
   is better.” In a concession to his new boss, he added, “But we need a lot   
   more to be even better.”   
      
   Many HBO employees, who had been watching the proceedings on video, were   
   shocked by Mr. Stankey’s blunt remarks and conspicuous lack of warmth   
   toward Mr. Plepler.   
      
   When they expressed their dismay to Mr. Plepler, he counseled patience   
   and, quoting the former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, described   
   himself as an “unsatisfied optimist.” Once the new owners saw how good HBO   
   was at what it did, he suggested, maybe they would back off.   
      
   Not in ‘Switzerland’ anymore   
   While Mr. Stankey never mentioned Netflix or Amazon during the employee   
   meeting, his emphasis on “scale” in streaming made it clear that they were   
   his models.   
      
   He made that explicit in a conversation with Mr. Schaffer. The two men   
      
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