Warner Media, LLC (
traded as WarnerMedia) was an American
multinational mass media and
entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...
conglomerate. It was headquartered at the
30 Hudson Yards
30 Hudson Yards (also the North Tower) is a Supertall building, supertall skyscraper in the West Side (Manhattan), West Side of Midtown Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Located near Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen, Chelse ...
complex in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
It was originally established in 1972 by
Steve Ross as Warner Communications, and Time Warner was created in 1990, following a merger between
Time Inc.
Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...
and the original Warner Communications. The company has film, television and
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
operations, with its assets including WarnerMedia Studios & Networks (consisting of the entertainment assets of
Turner Broadcasting
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...
,
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
, and
Cinemax
Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent net ...
as well as
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, which itself consists of the film, animation, television studios,
the company's home entertainment division and Studio Distribution Services, its joint venture with
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Video, MCA/Universal Home Video, MCA Home Video, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette, Inc.) is the home video distribution division of Am ...
,
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
,
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...
, and, together with
CBS Entertainment Group
The following is a list of major assets that are owned by Paramount Global.
Paramount Pictures Corporation (Film)
* Paramount Pictures
** Paramount Home Entertainment
** Paramount Television Studios
** Paramount Pictures International
** Param ...
, through its
Warner Bros. Entertainment
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
subsidiary, a 50% interest in
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
television network); WarnerMedia News & Sports (consisting of the news and sports assets of Turner Broadcasting, including
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
,
Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS (American TV ch ...
, and
AT&T SportsNet);
WarnerMedia Sales & Distribution (consisting of digital media company
Otter Media
Otter Media Holdings, LLC was an American digital media company owned by WarnerMedia. The company was founded in 2014 by AT&T and The Chernin Group as a holding company of the anime streaming service, Crunchyroll who the latter invested in 2013 ...
); and WarnerMedia Direct (consisting of the
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
streaming service).
Despite
spinning off Time Inc. in 2014, the company retained the Time-Warner name from 1990, also becoming Time Warner in 2003, until 2018. In 2018, after
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
's acquisition of Time Warner, the company was renamed Warner Media. On October 22, 2016, AT&T officially announced that they intended on acquiring Time Warner for $85.4 billion (including assumed Time Warner debt), valuing the company at $107.50 per share.
The proposed merger was confirmed on June 12, 2018, after AT&T won an
antitrust
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
lawsuit that the
U.S. Justice Department
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United States ...
filed in 2017 to attempt to block the acquisition, and was completed two days later, when the company became a subsidiary of AT&T. The company's current name was adopted a day later.
Under AT&T, the company moved to launch a
streaming service built around the company's content, known as HBO Max. WarnerMedia refolded Turner's entertainment-based networks under a singular umbrella unit on August 10, 2020, through a consolidation of the WarnerMedia Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment assets into a new unit, WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group.
On May 17, 2021, nearly three years after the acquisition, AT&T decided to leave the entertainment business and announced that it had proposed to relinquish its ownership of WarnerMedia and merge it with
Discovery, Inc.
Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate (company), conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual television, factual and lifestyle television bra ...
to form a new publicly traded company,
Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with D ...
. The deal closed on April 8, 2022.
The company's previous assets included
Time Inc.
Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...
,
TW Telecom
TW Telecom (styled tw telecom), was a business telecommunications company headquartered in Littleton, Colorado, United States. The company provided business voice services, transport, Internet, data services and wholesale fiber capacity. It w ...
,
AOL
AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017â ...
,
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
,
AOL Time Warner Book Group, and
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
; these operations were either sold to others or spun off as independent companies. The company was ranked No. 98 in the 2018
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
History
Warner Communications (1972–1990)
On February 10, 1972, the entertainment assets of the
Kinney National Company
Kinney National Service, Inc. (later known as Kinney Services, Inc.) was an American conglomerate company from 1966 to 1972. Its successors were National Kinney Corporation and Warner Communications, Time Warner, AOL Time Warner, and WarnerMedia ...
reincorporated as Warner Communications due to a financial scandal involving price fixing in its parking operations.
Warner Communications served as the parent company for
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, the
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
(WMG), and
Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, opera ...
during the 1970s and 1980s. It also owned
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
and
''Mad'' magazine. The European publishing division, which produced magazines and comics, was known as
Williams Publishing
Williams Publishing was the short-lived European comics and magazines publishing division of Warner Communications in the 1970s. Headquartered at the Columbia-Warner House in London, Williams had European-language divisions in Denmark, Finland, F ...
; thanks to a prior acquisition (from
Gilberton World-Wide Publications),
[Jones Jr., William B. ''Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History'', 2d ed. (McFarland & Company, 2017).] it had European-language branches in the UK,
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, the Netherlands,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, and
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. Most of these publishers were sold off around 1979.
During its time as Warner Communications, the company made a number of further acquisitions. In 1979, Warner formed a joint venture with credit card company
American Express
American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...
called
Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment
Paramount Media Networks (formerly known as Warner Cable Communications, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, MTV Networks, Viacom Media Networks, and ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks) is an American mass media division of Paramount Global tha ...
. This company owned such cable channels as
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
,
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
,
The Movie Channel
The Movie Channel (TMC) is an American premium television network owned by Showtime Networks, a subsidiary of Paramount Global operated through its Media Networks unit. The network's programming mainly features first-run theatrically released ...
, and
VH1 (which was launched in 1985 on the channel space left by
Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turni ...
's
Cable Music Channel
The Cable Music Channel (CMC) was a short-lived American basic cable channel that was owned by the Turner Broadcasting System. The all-music video channel was created by Ted Turner and launched in 1984, providing the first national competitio ...
). Warner bought out American Express's half in 1984 and sold the venture a year later to the
original iteration of Viacom, which renamed it
MTV Networks
Paramount Media Networks (formerly known as Warner Cable Communications, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, MTV Networks, Viacom Media Networks, and ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks) is an American mass media division of Paramount Global tha ...
(now known as Paramount Media Networks). In 1982, Warner purchased
Popular Library
Popular Library was a New York paperback book company established in 1942 by Leo Margulies and Ned Pines, who at the time were major pulp magazine and newspaper publishers. The company's logo of a pine tree was a tribute to Pines, and another ...
from
CBS Publications
Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc. (HFM U.S.), originally known as CBS Publications, was a subsidiary of Hachette Filipacchi Médias (one of the world's largest magazine publishers), and was based in New York City.
History
It was formed in 19 ...
.
By the mid to late 1980s, Warner began to face financial difficulties. From 1976 to 1984, Warner Communications owned
Atari, Inc.
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.
Based primarily around the Sunny ...
, but suffered substantial losses due to the
video game crash of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...
, and had to spin them off in 1984. Taking advantage of Warner Communications's financial situation,
Time Inc.
Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...
announced on March 4, 1989, that the two companies were to merge.
During the summer of 1989,
Paramount Communications
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest ...
(then
Gulf+Western
Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. (stylized as Gulf+Western) was an American conglomerate. Originally, the company focused on manufacturing and resource extraction. Beginning in 1966, and continuing throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the company ...
) launched a $12.2 billion
hostile bid
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...
to acquire Time, Inc. in an attempt to end a stock-swap merger deal between Time and Warner Communications. Time raised its bid to $14.9 billion in cash and stock. Paramount responded by filing a lawsuit in a Delaware court to block the Time Warner merger. The court ruled twice in favor of Time, forcing Paramount to drop both the Time acquisition and the lawsuit, and allowing the two companies to merge, which was completed on January 10, 1990.
Time-Warner (1990–2001) and Time Warner Entertainment (1992–2001)
US West
US West, Inc. (stylized as US WEST) was one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs, also referred to as "Baby Bells"), created in 1983 under the Modification of Final Judgement (''United States v. Western Electric Co., Inc.'' 552 ...
partnered with Time Warner in 1993 to form what is now known as
TW Telecom
TW Telecom (styled tw telecom), was a business telecommunications company headquartered in Littleton, Colorado, United States. The company provided business voice services, transport, Internet, data services and wholesale fiber capacity. It w ...
, initially known as Time Warner Communications (also utilized as the brand name for cable operation previously under the ATC name), in order to bring telephone via fiber to the masses. US West also took a 26% stake in the entertainment portion of the company, calling that division Time Warner Entertainment. US West's stake eventually passed to acquired cable company
MediaOne
MediaOne Group, Inc. (Comcast MO Group, Inc.) was created by US WEST Inc, one of the original Baby Bells Regional Bell Operating Companies, acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable and combined with its previously acquired Atlanta-based Wom ...
, then to
AT&T Broadband in 1999 when that company acquired MediaOne, then finally to
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
in 2001 when that company bought the AT&T Broadband division. Comcast sold their stake in the company in 2003, relegating the name to a subdivision under Time Warner Cable.
On October 10, 1996, Time Warner acquired Turner Broadcasting System, which was established by
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...
in 1965. Not only did this result in the company (in a way) re-entering the basic cable television industry (in regards to nationally available channels), but Warner Bros. also regained the rights to their pre-1950 film library, which by then had been owned by Turner (the films are still technically held by Turner, but WB is responsible for sales and distribution), while Turner gained access to WB's post-1950 library, as well as other WB-owned properties. The Turner deal also brought two separate film companies,
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...
and
Castle Rock Entertainment
Castle Rock Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded in 1987 by Martin Shafer, director Rob Reiner, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn. It is a label of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself a subsidiar ...
, into the Time Warner fold. The Turner deal also gave Time Warner access to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
(MGM)'s pre-May 1986 library.
Time Warner completed its purchase of
Six Flags Theme Parks
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any a ...
in 1993 after buying half of the company in 1991, saving it from financial trouble. The company was later sold to Oklahoma-based theme park operator
Premier Parks under certain terms and conditions on April 1, 1998.
Dick Parsons, already a director on the board since 1991, was hired as Time Warner president in 1995, although the division operational heads continued to report directly to chairman and CEO
Gerald Levin
Gerald M. "Jerry" Levin (born May 6, 1939) is an American mass-media businessman. Levin was involved in brokering the merger between AOL and Time Warner in 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, a merger which was ultimately disadvantageous ...
.
In 1991, HBO and
Cinemax
Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent net ...
became the first premium pay services to offer multiplexing to cable customers, with companion channels supplementing the main networks. In 1993, HBO became the world's first digitally transmitted television service. In 1995, CNN introduced CNN.com which later became a leading destination for global digital news, both online and mobile. In 1996, Warner Bros. spearheaded the introduction of the DVD, which gradually replaced VHS tapes as the standard format for home video in the late 1990s and early to mid-2000s. In 1999, HBO became the first national cable television network to broadcast a high–definition version of its channel.
AOL Time Warner (2001–2003)
![AOL Time Warner Logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/AOL_Time_Warner_Logo.svg)
In January 2000,
America Online
AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...
(AOL) stated its intentions to purchase Time Warner for $183 billion. Due to the larger market capitalization of AOL, their shareholders would own 55% of the new company while
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
shareholders owned only 45%,
so in actual practice AOL had merged with Time Warner, even though Time Warner had far more assets and revenues. Time Warner had been looking for a way to embrace the digital revolution, while AOL wanted to anchor its stock price with more tangible assets.
The deal, officially filed on February 11, 2000,
employed a merger structure in which each original company merged into a newly created entity. The
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...
(FTC) cleared the deal on December 14, 2000, and gave final approval on January 11, 2001; the company completed the merger later that day. The deal was approved on the same day by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC),
and had already been cleared by the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
(EC) on October 11, 2000.
AOL Time Warner Inc., as the company was then called, was supposed to be a merger of equals with top executives from both sides.
Gerald Levin
Gerald M. "Jerry" Levin (born May 6, 1939) is an American mass-media businessman. Levin was involved in brokering the merger between AOL and Time Warner in 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, a merger which was ultimately disadvantageous ...
, who had served as chairman and CEO of Time Warner, was CEO of the new company. AOL co-founder
Steve Case
Stephen McConnell Case (born August 21, 1958) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist best known as the former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). Case joined AOL's predecessor company, Quantum Computer ...
served as
Executive Chairman
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
of the board of directors,
Robert W. Pittman (president and COO of AOL) and
Dick Parsons (president of Time Warner) served as Co-Chief Operating Officers, and J. Michael Kelly (the CFO from AOL) became the chief financial officer.
According to AOL President and COO Bob Pittman, the slow-moving Time Warner would now take off at Internet speed, accelerated by AOL: "All you need to do is put a catalyst to
ime Warner
Ime is a village in Lindesnes municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located on the east side of the river Mandalselva, along the European route E39 highway. Ime is an eastern suburb of the town of Mandal, Norway, Mandal. Ime might ...
and in a short period, you can alter the growth rate. The growth rate will be like an Internet company." The vision for Time Warner's future seemed clear and straightforward; by tapping into AOL, Time Warner would reach deep into the homes of tens of millions of new customers. AOL would use Time Warner's high-speed cable lines to deliver to its subscribers Time Warner's branded magazines, books, music, and movies. This would have created 130 million subscription relationships.
However, the growth and profitability of the AOL division stalled due to advertising and loss of market share to the growth of high-speed broadband providers. The value of the AOL division dropped significantly, not unlike the market valuation of similar independent internet companies that drastically fell, and forced a
goodwill write-off
A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...
, causing AOL Time Warner to report a loss of $99 billion in 2002 — at the time, the largest loss ever reported by a company. The total value of AOL stock subsequently went from $226 billion to about $20 billion.
An outburst by Vice-Chairman
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...
at a board meeting prompted Steve Case to contact each of the directors and push for CEO Gerald Levin's ouster. Although Case's coup attempt was rebuffed by Parsons and several other directors, Levin became frustrated with being unable to "regain the rhythm" at the combined company and handed in his resignation in the fall of 2001, effective in May 2002.
Although Co-COO Bob Pittman was the strongest supporter of Levin and largely seen as the heir-apparent, Dick Parsons was instead chosen as CEO. Time Warner CFO J. Michael Kelly was demoted to COO of the AOL division and replaced as CFO by Wayne Pace. AOL Chairman and CEO Barry Schuler was removed from his position and placed in charge of a new "content creation division", being replaced on an interim basis by Pittman, who was already serving as the sole COO after Parsons' promotion.
Many of the expected synergies between AOL and other Time Warner divisions never materialized, as most Time Warner divisions were considered independent fiefs that rarely cooperated prior to the merger. A new incentive program that granted options based on the performance of AOL Time Warner, replacing the cash bonuses for the results of their own division, caused resentment among Time Warner division heads who blamed the AOL division for failing to meet expectations and dragging down the combined company. AOL Time Warner COO Pittman, who expected to have the divisions working closely towards convergence instead found heavy resistance from many division executives, who also criticized Pittman for adhering to optimistic growth targets for AOL Time Warner that were never met. Some of the attacks on Pittman were reported to come from the print media in the Time, Inc. division under
Don Logan
Don Logan (born 1944) is an American media executive from Hartselle, Alabama who lives in Birmingham. A retired Time Warner media chairman, Logan also owns the Birmingham Barons minor-league baseball team. In May 2011, he was inducted into the Al ...
.
Furthermore, CEO Parsons' democratic style prevented Pittman from exercising authority over the "old-guard" division heads who resisted Pittman's synergy initiatives.
Pittman resigned as AOL Time Warner COO after July 4, 2002, being reportedly burned out by the AOL special assignment and almost hospitalized, unhappy about the criticism from Time Warner executives, and seeing nowhere to move up in firm as Parsons was firmly entrenched as CEO.
Pittman's departure was seen as a great victory to Time Warner executives who wanted to undo the merger. In a sign of AOL's diminishing importance to the media conglomerate, Pittman's responsibilities were divided between two Time Warner veterans; Jeffrey Bewkes who was CEO of Home Box Office, and Don Logan who had been CEO of Time. Logan became chairman of the newly created media and communications group, overseeing America Online, Time, Time Warner Cable, the AOL Time Warner Book Group, and the Interactive Video unit, relegating AOL to being just another division in the conglomerate. Bewkes became chairman of the entertainment and networks group, comprising HBO, Cinemax, New Line Cinema, The WB, TNT, Turner Networks, Warner Bros., and Warner Music Group. Both Logan and Bewkes, who had initially opposed the merger, were chosen because they were considered the most successful operational executives in the conglomerate and they would report to AOL Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons.
Logan, generally admired at Time Warner and reviled by AOL for being a corporate timeserver who stressed incremental steady growth and not much of a risk-taker, moved to purge AOL of Pittman allies.
Time Warner (2003–2018)
![Time Warner wordmark](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Time_Warner_wordmark.svg)
AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case took on added prominence as the co-head of a new strategy committee of the board, making speeches to divisions on synergism and the promise of the Internet. However, under pressure from institutional investor vice-president Gordon Crawford who lined up dissenters, Case stated in January 2003 that he would not stand for re-election as executive chairman in the upcoming annual meeting, making CEO Richard Parsons the chairman-elect. In July 2003, the company dropped the "AOL" from its name, and spun off
Time-Life's ownership under the legal name Direct Holdings Americas, Inc. On November 24, 2003, Time Warner announced they would sell the
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
, which hosted a variety of acts such as
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
and
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
, to an investor group led by
Edgar Bronfman Jr.
Edgar Miles Bronfman Jr. (born May 16, 1955) is an American businessman who currently serves as a Managing Partner at Accretive LLC, a private equity firm focused on creating and investing in technology companies. He previously served as CEO of ...
and
Thomas H. Lee Partners
Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. is an American private equity firm based in Boston investing in middle market growth companies across financial technology and services, healthcare and technology & business solutions.
History
Founded in 1974 by ...
, in order to cut its debt down to US$20 million. Case resigned from the Time Warner board on October 31, 2005.
Jeff Bewkes
Jeffrey Lawrence Bewkes (born May 25, 1952) is an American media executive. He was CEO of Time Warner from January 1, 2008 to June 14, 2018, President from December 2005 to June 2018, and Chairman of the Board from January 1, 2009 to 2018.
Ear ...
, who eventually became CEO of Time Warner in 2007, described the 2001 merger with AOL as 'the biggest mistake in corporate history'.
In 2005, Time Warner was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
. On December 27, 2007, newly installed Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes discussed possible plans to spin off
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
and sell off AOL and Time Inc. This would leave a smaller company made up of Turner Broadcasting, Warner Bros. and HBO. On February 28, 2008, co-chairmen and co-CEOs of New Line Cinema Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne resigned from the 40-year-old movie studio in response to Jeffrey Bewkes's demand for cost-cutting measures at the studio, which he intended to dissolve into Warner Bros.
In 2009, Time Warner spun out its Time Warner Cable division (it is now part of Charter Communications), and later AOL, as independent companies; AOL was later purchased by Verizon in 2015.
In the first quarter of 2010, Time Warner purchased additional interests in HBO Latin America Group for $217 million, which resulted HBO owning 80% of the equity interests of HBO LAG. In 2010, HBO purchased the remainder of its partners' interests in HBO Europe (formerly HBO Central Europe) for $136 million, net of cash acquired. In August 2010, Time Warner agreed to acquire Shed Media, a television production company, for £100 million. Its distribution operation, Outright Distribution, was folded into Warner Bros. International Television Production. On August 26, 2010, Time Warner acquired
Chilevisión
Chilevisión (often abbreviated as CHV) is a Chilean free-to-air television channel. It is the third oldest Chilean television network, owned by Paramount Networks Americas, being founded by the University of Chile on November 4, 1960.
History
...
. WarnerMedia already operated in the country with
CNN Chile
CNN Chile (abbreviated as CNN CL) is a Chilean pay television news channel launched on 4 December 2008. It was originally a joint venture between VTR Chile and Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel is based in Santiago, Chile.
It is the local versi ...
.
In May 2011, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group acquired
Flixster
Flixster is an American social-networking movie website for discovering new movies, learning about movies, and meeting others with similar tastes in movies, currently owned by parent company Fandango. The formerly independent site, allows users t ...
, a movie discovery application company. The acquisition also includes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, a movie review aggregator.
In June 2012, Time Warner acquired
Alloy Entertainment
Alloy Entertainment (formerly Daniel Weiss Associates and 17th Street Productions) is a book packaging and television production unit of Warner Bros. Television Studios. It produces books, television series, and feature films.
Alloy Entertainment ...
, a publisher and television studio whose works are aimed at teen girls and young women. On August 6, 2012, Time Warner acquired
Bleacher Report
Bleacher Report (often abbreviated as B/R) is a website that focuses on sport and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London.
Bleacher Report was acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in Aug ...
, a sports news website. The property was placed under the control of the
Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS (American TV ch ...
division.
On March 6, 2013, Time Warner intended to spin-off its publishing division Time Inc. as a separate, publicly traded company. The transaction was completed on June 6, 2014.
In January 2014, Time Warner,
Related Companies
The Related Companies, L.P. is an American real estate firm in New York City, with offices and developments in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, Abu Dhabi, London, São Paulo and Shanghai. Related has more than 3,0 ...
, and
Oxford Properties Group
Oxford Properties is a Canadian multinational corporation, with operations in real estate investment, development and property management. Its portfolio includes office, retail, industrial, multi-residential, life sciences and hotel assets. Esta ...
announced that the then Time Warner intended to relocate the company's corporate headquarters and its New York City-based employees to
30 Hudson Yards
30 Hudson Yards (also the North Tower) is a Supertall building, supertall skyscraper in the West Side (Manhattan), West Side of Midtown Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Located near Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen, Chelse ...
in the
Hudson Yards neighborhood in
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The area's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, the Hudson River and West Street to the west, and Sixth Avenue to the east, with its northern b ...
, and has accordingly made an initial financial commitment. Time Warner sold its stake in the
Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South ( West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the so ...
building for $1.3 billion to Related and two wealth funds. The move will be completed in 2019.
In June 2014,
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
made a bid for Time Warner at $85 per share in stock and cash ($80 billion total) which Time Warner's board of directors turned down in July. Time Warner's CNN unit would have been sold to ease antitrust issues of the purchase. On August 5, 2014, Murdoch withdrew his offer to purchase Time Warner.
AT&T acquisition and rebranding (2018–2021)
On October 20, 2016, it was reported that
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
was in talks to acquire Time Warner. The proposed deal would give AT&T significant holdings in the media industry. AT&T's competitor
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
had previously
acquired NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
in a similar bid to increase its media holdings, in concert with its ownership of television and internet providers.
On October 22, 2016, AT&T reached a deal to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion. The merger would bring Time Warner's properties under the same umbrella as AT&T's telecommunication holdings, including satellite provider
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
. The deal faced criticism for the possibility that AT&T could use Time Warner content as leverage to discriminate against or limit access to the content by competing providers.
On February 15, 2017, Time Warner shareholders approved the merger. On February 28,
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
chairman
Ajit Pai
Ajit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 20 ...
refused to review the deal, leaving the review to the
Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
. On March 15, 2017, the merger was approved by the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
. On August 22, 2017, the merger was approved by the Mexican
Comisión Federal de Competencia. On September 5, 2017, the merger was approved by the Chilean FiscalÃa Nacional Económica.
In the wake of the U.S. presidency of
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, Time Warner's ownership of CNN was considered a potential source of scrutiny for the deal, as Trump had repeatedly criticized the network for how it covered
his administration, and stated during his campaign that he planned to block the acquisition because of the potential impact of the resulting consolidation. Following his election, however, his transition team stated that the government planned to evaluate the deal without prejudice.
On November 8, 2017, reports of a meeting between AT&T CEO
Randall L. Stephenson
Randall Lynn Stephenson (born April 22, 1960) is a retired American telecommunications executive. He served as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of AT&T Inc. from May 9, 2007 – June 30, 2020 and as executive chairman of AT&T Inc. from J ...
and
Makan Delrahim
Makan Delrahim (; born November 2, 1969) is an Iranian-American attorney and lobbyist. From 2017 to 2021, Delrahim served under President Donald Trump as Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Antitrust Division.
Early life a ...
, assistant Attorney General of the
Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, indicated that AT&T had been recommended to divest DirecTV or Turner Broadcasting, seek alternative antitrust remedies, or abandon the acquisition. Some news outlets reported that AT&T had been ordered to specifically divest CNN, but these claims were denied by both Stephenson and a government official the following day, with the latter criticizing the reports as being an effort to politicize the deal. Stephenson also disputed the relevance of CNN to the antitrust concerns surrounding the acquisition, as AT&T does not already own a national news channel.
On November 20, 2017, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit over the acquisition; Delrahim stated that the deal would "greatly harm American consumers". AT&T asserts that this suit is a "radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent". On December 22, 2017, the merger agreement deadline was extended to June 21, 2018, under a vote of confidence.
On June 12, 2018,
District
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
Judge
Richard J. Leon
Richard J. Leon (born December 3, 1949) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Early life and education
Leon was born in South Natick, Massachusetts, in 1949. He is the son of ...
ruled in favor of AT&T, thus allowing the acquisition to go ahead with no conditions or remedies. Leon argued that the Department of Justice provided insufficient evidence that the proposed transaction would result in lessened competition. He also warned the government that attempting to obtain an appeal or stay on the ruling would be manifest unjust, as it would cause "certain irreparable harm to the defendants".
On June 14, 2018, AT&T announced that it had closed the acquisition of Time Warner. Jeff Bewkes stepped down as CEO of Time Warner while retaining ties with the company as senior advisor of AT&T.
John Stankey
John T. Stankey (born 1962) is an American businessman currently serving as CEO of AT&T Inc. and as a member of AT&T Inc.’s board of directors. He previously served as AT&T’s president and COO and was former CEO of WarnerMedia. Stankey led ...
, who headed the AT&T/Time Warner integration team, took over as CEO. On the next day, AT&T renamed the company as WarnerMedia (legally Warner Media, LLC).
![WarnerMedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/WarnerMedia.svg)
On July 12, 2018, the
Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
filed a notice of appeal with the
D.C. Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...
to reverse the District Court's approval. Although the Department of Justice reportedly contemplated requesting an injunction to stop the deal from closing after the District Court's ruling, the department ultimately did not file the motion because WarnerMedia's operation as a separate group from the rest of AT&T would make the business relatively easy to unwind should the appeal be successful. The next day, however, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told CNBC that the appeal would not affect its plans to integrate WarnerMedia into AT&T, or services already launched. In a brief filed by the Justice Department, it was argued that the decision to approve the acquisition ran "contrary to fundamental economic logic and the evidence".
On August 7, 2018, AT&T acquired the remaining controlling stake in
Otter Media
Otter Media Holdings, LLC was an American digital media company owned by WarnerMedia. The company was founded in 2014 by AT&T and The Chernin Group as a holding company of the anime streaming service, Crunchyroll who the latter invested in 2013 ...
from the
Chernin Group for an undisclosed amount. The company now operates as a division of WarnerMedia.
On August 29, 2018,
Makan Delrahim
Makan Delrahim (; born November 2, 1969) is an Iranian-American attorney and lobbyist. From 2017 to 2021, Delrahim served under President Donald Trump as Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Antitrust Division.
Early life a ...
told
Recode
''Recode'' (formerly ''Re/code'') is a technology news website that focused on the business of Silicon Valley. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher founded it in January 2014, after they left Dow Jones and the similar website they had previously c ...
that if the government were to win the appeal, AT&T would only sell Turner and if they lost the appeal then the February 2019 expiration of a consent decree AT&T reached with the Justice Department shortly before the deal closed would allow AT&T to do what they want with Turner. The appeal is expected to have zero impact on the integration. By September 2018, nine state
Attorneys General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
sided with AT&T on the case.
On October 10, 2018, WarnerMedia announced that it would launch an
over-the-top
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...
streaming service in late 2019, featuring content from its entertainment brands. On December 14, 2018, Kevin Reilly, president of TNT and TBS, was promoted to chief content officer of all WarnerMedia digital and subscription activities, including HBO Max, reporting to both Turner's president David Levy and WarnerMedia's CEO John Stankey. The
U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. unanimously upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of AT&T on February 26, 2019, stating it did not believe the merger with Time Warner would have a negative impact on either consumers or competition. The Justice Department declined to appeal the decision further, thus allowing the consent decree to expire.
On March 4, 2019, AT&T announced a major reorganization of its broadcasting assets to effectively dissolve Turner Broadcasting. Its assets were dispersed across two of the new divisions, WarnerMedia Entertainment and WarnerMedia News & Sports. WarnerMedia Entertainment would consist of HBO, TBS, TNT, TruTV, and the direct-to-consumer video service HBO Max. WarnerMedia News & Sports would have CNN Worldwide, Turner Sports, and the
AT&T SportsNet regional networks led by CNN president
Jeff Zucker
Jeffrey Adam Zucker (born April 9, 1965) is an American former media executive. Between January 2013 and February 2022, Zucker was the president of CNN Worldwide. Zucker oversaw CNN, CNN International, HLN, and CNN Digital. He was previously C ...
. Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, Turner Classic Movies, and Otter Media would be moved under Warner Bros.
Gerhard Zeiler
Gerhard Zeiler (born 20 July 1955) is an Austrian businessman who is the current president of Warner Bros. Discovery International, part of Warner Bros. Discovery. Before taking up the role at Turner/Warner, Mr Zeiler was chief executive officer ...
moved from being president of Turner International to
chief revenue officer of WarnerMedia, and will oversee the consolidated advertising and affiliation sales.
David Levy and HBO chief
stepped down as part of the reorganization, which was described by ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' as being intended to end "fiefdoms". Turner Podcast Network, formed within Turner Content Distribution in 2017, became WarnerMedia Podcast Network by May 2019.
In May 2019,
Kevin Reilly signed a four-year extension of his contract with the company, which additionally made him president of
TruTV
TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows.
The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that focu ...
(alongside the other three WarnerMedia Entertainment basic cable networks), and chief content officer of direct-to-consumer for the new streaming service. On May 31, 2019, Otter Media was transferred from Warner Bros. to WarnerMedia Entertainment, and Otter's COO Andy Forssell became the executive vice president and general manager of the streaming service, while still reporting to Otter CEO Tony Goncalves — who would lead development.
On July 9, 2019, it was announced that the new streaming service would be known as
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
, which was launched on May 27, 2020.
In September 2019, Stankey was promoted to AT&T president and chief operating officer. By April 1, 2020, former Hulu chief Jason Kilar took over as WarnerMedia CEO.
In August 2020, the company had a significant restructuring laying off around 800 employees including around 600 from Warner and 150+ from HBO. At WarnerMedia's Atlanta base, marketing and cable operations teams were particularly affected.
On August 10, 2020, WarnerMedia restructured several of its units in a major corporate revamp that resulted in TBS, TNT and TruTV being brought back under the same umbrella as Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, Boomerang and TCM, under a consolidation of WarnerMedia Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment's respective assets that formed the combined WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group unit. Casey Bloys—who has been with WarnerMedia since 2004 (as director of development at HBO Independent Productions), and was eventually elevated to President of Programming at HBO and Cinemax in May 2016—added oversight of WarnerMedia's basic cable networks and HBO Max to his purview.
In October 2020, it was announced that the company was planning to execute over a 1,000 job cuts in order to reduce costs. WarnerMedia plans to reduce costs by at least 20% in order to deal with the profit shortage caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
As a result of planned cost cutting programs, the sale of
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE; also known as Warner Bros. Games or WB Games) is an American video game publisher based in Burbank, California, and part of the newly-formed Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment unit of ...
was proposed, but ultimately abandoned due to COVID-19 related growth in the Gaming industry, as well as a positive reception to upcoming
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
,
Lego
Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...
''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
,'' and ''
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'' titles from fans and critics.
Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...
was sold to
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
's
Funimation
Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...
for in December 2020, with the acquisition closing in August 2021.
On December 21, 2020, WarnerMedia acquired You.i TV, an
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
-based developer of tools for building cross-platform video streaming apps. The company's products have been the basis of various WarnerMedia streaming platforms, including AT&T TV Now and the Turner channels' apps, and will be used as part of international expansion of HBO Max.
Spin-off from AT&T and merger with Discovery, Inc. (2021–2022)
On May 16, 2021, it was reported that AT&T was in talks with
Discovery, Inc.
Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate (company), conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual television, factual and lifestyle television bra ...
—which primarily operates television channels and platforms devoted to
non-fiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...
and unscripted content—for it to merge with WarnerMedia, forming a publicly traded company that would be divided between its shareholders. The proposed spin-off and merger was officially announced the next day, which is to be structured as a
Reverse Morris Trust
A Reverse Morris Trust in United States law is a transaction that combines a divisive reorganization ( spin-off) with an acquisitive reorganization ( statutory merger) to allow a tax-free transfer (in the guise of a merger) of a subsidiary. It may ...
. AT&T shareholders will receive a 71% stake in the merged company, which is expected to be known as Warner Bros. Discovery, and led by Discovery's current CEO
David Zaslav
David Zaslav (born January 15, 1960) is an American media executive who currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Warner Bros. Discovery. Zaslav spearheaded the transaction between AT&T and Discovery to combine with Warner ...
.
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
, who were a bidder in the proposed sale of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, purchased the mobile gaming studio Playdemic from WBIE for in June 2021.
In September 2021, WarnerMedia sold
TMZ
TMZ is a tabloid news website owned by Fox Corporation. It made its debut on November 8, 2005, originally as a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. On September 13, 202 ...
to
Fox Corporation
Fox Corporation (stylized in all-caps as FOX Corporation) is a publicly traded American mass media company operated and controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Incorporated ...
in a deal worth about $50 million with TMZ being operated under the
Fox Entertainment
Fox Entertainment is an American production company owned by Fox Corporation. The company was formed in 2019 after The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The programming is created for the Fox Broadcasting Company, MyNetwor ...
division.
In November 2021, Discovery and WarnerMedia discussed a plan to combine the two streaming services,
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
and
Discovery+
Discovery may refer to:
* Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown
* Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown
* Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence
Discovery, The Discover ...
, into one streaming service in two phases: an initial phase that allows for quick bundling of the services and a second phase that allows for a common service on one tech platform. In the same month, it was announced that Discovery will rename itself Warner Bros. and reclassify and convert its stock into stock of WBD.
On December 22, 2021, it was announced that the deal was approved by the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
and it was scheduled to be completed on April 8, 2022, subject to approval by Discovery shareholders and additional closing conditions.
On January 5, 2022, ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' reported that WarnerMedia and
Paramount Global
Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...
(at the time known as ViacomCBS) were exploring a possible sale of either a majority stake or all of
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
, and that
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
(which became The CW's largest affiliate group when it acquired former
WB co-owner
Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United Sta ...
in 2019) was considered a leading bidder. The news led to speculation that, should a sale take place, new ownership could steer the network in a new direction, transforming The CW from a young adult-oriented network into one that featured more unscripted and even national news programming. However, reports also indicated that WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS could include a contractual commitment that would require any new owner to buy new programming from those companies, allowing them to reap some continual revenue through the network. Network president/CEO
Mark Pedowitz
Mark Pedowitz is the former chairman and CEO of The CW. He replaced Dawn Ostroff in 2011, who had been the Head of Entertainment since the network's inception in 2006. Pedowitz oversaw all aspects of The CW, including programming, sales, marketing ...
confirmed talks of a potential sale in a memo to CW staffers, but added that "It's too early to speculate what might happen" and that the network "must continue to do what we do best."
On January 26, 2022, it was reported that the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc. is expected to close sometime during the second quarter of 2022.
On February 1, 2022, it was reported that AT&T was going to spin off WarnerMedia in a $43 billion deal. Also on the same month, it was announced that the WarnerMedia and Discovery merger was approved by the Brazilian antitrust regulator
Cade.
On February 9, 2022, it was announced that the deal was approved by the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
. A day later, it was announced that Discovery's shareholders will board on meeting on March 11 to vote on the WarnerMedia merger. The deal was approved by Discovery shareholders on the same date.
On February 23, 2022, it was announced that the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger would close on April 8. On March 25, it was announced that AT&T would spin off WarnerMedia on April 8, marking AT&T's official exit from entertainment business.
On April 5, it was announced that Kilar;
Ann Sarnoff
Ann Marie Sarnoff (née Misiaszek; born c. 1961) is an American television executive. She became the chairwoman and CEO of Warner Bros. in the summer of 2019. Sarnoff was the first woman to hold the position at the company.
Early life and educat ...
, Chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group; as well as Andy Forssell, executive vice president and general manager of HBO Max; were stepping down from their roles. The next day,
chief financial officer
The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...
Jennifer Biry,
chief human resources officer
A chief human resources officer (CHRO) or chief people officer (CPO) is a corporate officer who oversees all aspects of human resource management and industrial relations policies, practices and operations for an organization. Similar job titles in ...
Jim Cummings,
chief revenue officer Tony Goncalves, communications and
chief inclusion officer Christy Haubegger
Christy Haubegger (born August 15, 1968) is the founder of ''Latina'' magazine and was formerly the Executive Vice President, Chief Enterprise Inclusion Officer and Head of Marketing & Communications, at WarnerMedia.
Early life
She was born i ...
, WarnerMedia
general counsel
A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department.
In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...
Jim Meza and
chief technology officer Richard Tom were confirmed to be stepping down. The merger was completed on April 8.
Units
WarnerMedia's businesses operated under the following five primary divisions:
* WarnerMedia Studios & Networks, encompassed the company's television series and motion picture development, production and programming. The division's primary unit was the
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
'
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
,
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
and
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
studio – which also contained
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE; also known as Warner Bros. Games or WB Games) is an American video game publisher based in Burbank, California, and part of the newly-formed Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment unit of ...
and
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, the comic book company
DC Entertainment
DC Entertainment is an American entertainment company that was founded in September 2009 and was based in Burbank, California. The company is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery that manages its DC Comics units and characters in other units, ...
, and youth or specialty-centric cable networks (
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
,
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim
Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...
and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...
,
Boomerang
A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...
and
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...
). Other assets included
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
(as well as its sister channel
Cinemax
Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent net ...
), the remaining former
Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turni ...
networks (
TBS,
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
and
TruTV
TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows.
The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that focu ...
), and with
Paramount Global
Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...
, a 50% stake in
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
Television Network.
* WarnerMedia News & Sports, encompassed the company's worldwide broadcast news and sports operations, including
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, the
Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS (American TV ch ...
subsidiary, and the
AT&T SportsNet family of regional sports networks.
* WarnerMedia Sales & Distribution oversaw WarnerMedia's U.S. advertising sales, distribution and content licensing. The division also contained digital media company
Otter Media
Otter Media Holdings, LLC was an American digital media company owned by WarnerMedia. The company was founded in 2014 by AT&T and The Chernin Group as a holding company of the anime streaming service, Crunchyroll who the latter invested in 2013 ...
(
Fullscreen and
Rooster Teeth
Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American digital media company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Warner ...
).
* WarnerMedia Direct was responsible for the product, marketing, consumer engagement and global rollout of the company's direct-to-consumer streaming service
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
.
* WarnerMedia International oversaw certain international variations of the company's domestic television channels, with a few region-specific channels. This group was also responsible for local execution of all of WarnerMedia's linear businesses, commercial activities, legacy streaming services such as HBO Portugal,
HBO Go
HBO Go is a partly-inactive authenticated video on demand of the pay television service HBO. The service allowed subscribers to HBO via television providers to access its programming on-demand via the HBO website, mobile apps, and digital media p ...
in certain countries which not yet served by HBO Max and regional programming for HBO Max.
Leadership
* ''Note: all executives listed below were in office until its merger with Discovery, Inc. on April 8, 2022.''
*
Jason Kilar
Jason Alan Kilar (; born April 26, 1971) is an American businessman. He was the CEO of WarnerMedia from May 2020 to April 2022. He was previously an Amazon executive, the founding CEO of the short-lived Vessel, and the CEO of Hulu.
Early life ...
(Chief Executive Officer)
** Michael Bass,
Amy Entelis
Amy Entelis is the Executive Vice President for Talent and Content Development for CNN Worldwide. She leads the development, production, and acquisition of original, long-form premium content for the network. Entelis is the senior talent executi ...
and
Ken Jautz
Ken Jautz serves as executive vice president, CNN-US, responsible for HLN, as well as group operations, business affairs and the Newsource affiliate service. Jautz, a longtime CNN and Turner Broadcasting executive, has managed several networks, ...
(Interim Co-Heads,
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
)
** Jennifer S. Biry (Chief Financial Officer)
** James Cummings (Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer)
** Andy Forssell (Executive Vice President & General Manager,
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
)
** Tony Goncalves (Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer)
** Christy Haubegger (Executive Vice President, Communications & Chief Inclusion Officer)
** James Meza (Executive Vice President & General Counsel)
**
Ann Sarnoff
Ann Marie Sarnoff (née Misiaszek; born c. 1961) is an American television executive. She became the chairwoman and CEO of Warner Bros. in the summer of 2019. Sarnoff was the first woman to hold the position at the company.
Early life and educat ...
(Chair and CEO, WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group)
** Richard Tom (Chief Technology Officer)
**
Gerhard Zeiler
Gerhard Zeiler (born 20 July 1955) is an Austrian businessman who is the current president of Warner Bros. Discovery International, part of Warner Bros. Discovery. Before taking up the role at Turner/Warner, Mr Zeiler was chief executive officer ...
(President, WarnerMedia International)
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1972 establishments in New York City
2018 mergers and acquisitions
2022 mergers and acquisitions
American companies established in 1972
American companies disestablished in 2022
Companies based in Manhattan
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Conglomerate companies of the United States
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Entertainment companies based in New York City
Entertainment companies established in 1972
Entertainment companies disestablished in 2022
Entertainment companies of the United States
Former AT&T subsidiaries
Former components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Mass media companies established in 1972
Mass media companies disestablished in 2022
Mass media companies of the United States
Mass media companies based in New York City
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Multinational companies headquartered in the United States
Predecessors of Warner Bros. Discovery
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