Get vertical or get destroyed.

That was the message of AT&T Randall Stephenson during his interview at Recode's Code Conference on Wednesday. 

"The model has to change," Stephenson said of the ongoing acquisition rush among media and distribution companies.

Interviewed by Recode's Peter Kafka, Stephenson continued to make the case for why its acquisition of Time Warner should go through. The deal was blocked by a Department of Justice lawsuit, which is pending a decision by a U.S. judge.

Stephenson reiterated arguments made by AT&T lawyers — that tech companies are too big and too close to consumers for media or distribution companies to survive on their own. 

"You're going to have a hard time competing with these guys," Stephenson said. "The statistic we throw out is, since we announced this deal in November of 2016, the FANG market caps have gone up $1 trillion dollars. You better figure out how to vertically compete here."

Of course, it's not just about size. Stephenson said the point of vertical integration would to be make more money off Time Warner's media than Time Warner could make on its own through targeted ads using AT&T's data. Stephenson said the small amount of targeted ads AT&T serves against content commands between three and five times more revenue than regular ads. 

Stephenson also touched on some of the other news of the day, including ABC canceling Roseanne Barr's show. When asked by Kafka if he would have made the same decision, Stephenson responded quickly: "I can’t imagine how you would not."

Stephenson was a little less excited to talk about Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's lawyer who AT&T paid as a consultant. Stephenson called it a "bad mistake," but had little else to add.