AT&T Agrees to Merge Its WarnerMedia Assets With Discovery

 

Deal would complete telecom giant’s retreat from the media business, which included owning cable channels such as HBO and CNN

By 

, 

 and 

Updated May 17, 2021 9:33 pm ET

AT&T Inc. and Discovery Inc. reached a deal to combine their media assets into a new, publicly traded company, unwinding the telecom company’s big bet on entertainment after less than three years.

The new business, which isn’t yet named, will be led by current Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav. The companies said Jason Kilar will retain his title as CEO of AT&T’s WarnerMedia division but declined to say whether he would remain with the newly combined company after it secures regulatory approval.

Shares of AT&T fell 2.7% Monday, while Discovery’s stock shed 5.1% after an early rise. Discovery’s market value traded above $17 billion. AT&T, which draws most of its revenue from the telecommunications business, had a roughly $240 billion market value. The new media business will hold a little more than $55 billion of debt, Mr. Zaslav said.

AT&T Chief Executive John Stankey said in an online news conference Monday that he had been “contemplating the structure of our business for some time” and eventually decided that the pairing with Mr. Zaslav’s company would benefit both parties.

Mr. Zaslav, a media mogul and longtime friend of WarnerMedia executive and CNN boss Jeff Zucker, said the transaction came together over several months of talks that included chats in the Discovery chief’s Greenwich Village brownstone.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-t-to-combine-warnermedia-division-with-discovery-11621250928