AT&T spin-off

dinotuf

Hi,
I own 100 shares of AT&T. How would you recomend to book the spin-off from T to WBD in Portfolio Slicer? At what rates and dates should we do this? Do we need to change anything in the script for retrieving data? I think it would be helpful with a guide since probably many of us own T stock.

Thanks in advance

VidasMatelis

Can yo provide details on the spinoff - any money paid, how many new shares you received?

gsbaker

According to https://www.suredividend.com/att-merger-discovery/: "... shareholders of AT&T received 0.241917 shares of WBD for each share of AT&T common stock they held at close ...

Note: The record date for AT&T shares to receive the new spinoff company shares was close of business on April 5th, 2022, according to a press release from AT&T."

I am not sure how any fractional shares will be dealt with.

The AT&T press release referred to above is available at https://about.att.com/story/2022/details-for-completion-of-warnermedia-spinoff.html. They refer to AT&T announcing a stock dividend to effect the transaction.

"... it has declared a stock dividend to effect the spin-off of 100% of AT&T’s interest in WarnerMedia to AT&T’s shareholders. The record date for the stock dividend is the close of business on April 5, 2022. This stock dividend is in connection with the previously announced transaction to combine AT&T’s WarnerMedia business with Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK). On the closing date of the transaction, anticipated to be in April, AT&T shareholders will receive, on a tax-free basis, an estimated 0.24 shares of stock in Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) for each share of AT&T common stock. "

Hope this helps.

VidasMatelis

Based on your description it appears that each AT&T share will be replaced (!!! assuming) with 0.241917 shares of WBD.
Then you will have 2 transactions to record such event, for example if you had 100 AT&T shares:
SymbolTransferOut AT&T 100 , CostBasisOverride: Your value
SymbolTransferIn WBD 24.19 , CostBasisOverride: Same value as above CostBasis

Trenzalore

Hi Vidas, the AT&T stock isn't being replaced but for every share of AT&T (T) that is owned, they are giving .241917 shares of WBD stock as a dividend.

If I own a 1000 shares of T, I'm keeping the 1000 shares and getting 241 shares of WBD which is classified as a dividend payment in shares.

Any fractional shares of WBD are paid out as cash dividend.

Trenzalore

I don't know if this is right but this is what I did:
Create DIVTA for T to cash for the value of the WBD shares on the day they were distributed.
Create a BUYTA for WBD for the number of shares for the cash value of the previously mentioned DIVTA

VidasMatelis

If that WBD share is given as a dividend, then your transactions above are correct. Keep in mind that in the reports you will see that amount as dividends received and then WBD buy will be separate transaction no way related to AT&T.

gsbaker

By doing the DIVTA and BUYTA transactions there will be no impact to the ACB of T as a result of this spin-off. Is that supposed to be the case? Also, as of yet, I have not seen any transactions related to the fractional shares.