Time Warner is formed by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications.
WarnerMedia, LLC (traded as WarnerMedia; formerly known as Time Warner from 2003 to 2018, AOL Time Warner from 2001 to 2003, Time Warner Entertainment Inc. from 1992 to 2001, Time-Warner from 1990 to 2001 and from 1972 to 1990, Warner Communications) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by AT&T. It is headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
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. and the original Warner Communications. The company has film, television and cable operations, with its assets including WarnerMedia Studios & Networks (consisting of the entertainment assets of Turner Broadcasting, HBO, and Cinemax as well as Warner Bros., 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, DC Comics, New Line Cinema, and, together with CBS Entertainment Group, through its Warner Bros. Entertainment subsidiary, a 50% interest in The CW television network); WarnerMedia News & Sports (consisting of the news and sports assets of Turner Broadcasting, including CNN, Turner Sports, and AT&T SportsNet); WarnerMedia Sales & Distribution (consisting of digital media company Otter Media); and WarnerMedia Direct (consisting of the HBO Max streaming service).
Despite spinning off Time Inc. in 2014, the company retained the Time Warner name until AT&T's acquisition in 2018, after which it became WarnerMedia. 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 lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department filed in 2017 to attempt to block the acquisition. The merger closed two days later, with the company becoming 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.In May 2021, nearly three years after the acquisition, AT&T announced that it had proposed to spin-off WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery, Inc. to form a new publicly traded company, Warner Bros. Discovery, under Discovery Inc.'s CEO David Zaslav. In December 2021, it was announced that the deal was approved by the European Commission, then by Administrative Council for Economic Defense of Brazil, the U.S. Department of Justice in February 2022 and Discovery's shareholders in March 2022 and it is expected to be completed on April 5, 2022.
The company's previous assets included Time Inc., TW Telecom, AOL, Time Warner Cable, AOL Time Warner Book Group, and Warner Music Group; these operations were either sold to others or spun off as independent companies. The company was ranked No. 98 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.