![]() Final logo, used from 2019 to 2022 | |
![]() 30 Hudson Yards, WarnerMedia's last headquarters in New York City | |
WarnerMedia | |
Formerly |
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Company type | Subsidiary |
NYSE: TWX | |
Industry | |
Predecessors |
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Founded | January 10, 1990 |
Founders | (Warner Communications)
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Defunct | April 8, 2022 |
Fate | Spun-off from AT&T and merged with Discovery, Inc. |
Successor | Warner Bros. Discovery |
Headquarters | 30 Hudson Yards, , US |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
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Brands | |
Revenue | ![]() |
![]() | |
Number of employees | 25,600 (2015) ![]() |
Parent | AT&T (2018–2022) |
Divisions |
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Website | warnermedia.com (archived) |
Footnotes / references [1][2][3][4][5] |
Warner Media, LLC (doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City.
It was established as Time Warner in 1990, following a merger between Time Inc. and Warner Communications. The company had film, television and cable operations. Its assets included WarnerMedia Studios & Networks (which consisted of the entertainment assets of Turner Broadcasting, HBO, and Cinemax as well as Warner Bros., which itself consisted 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[6], a 50% interest in The CW); WarnerMedia News & Sports (consisted of the news and sports assets of Turner Broadcasting, including CNN, Turner Sports, and AT&T SportsNet); WarnerMedia Sales & Distribution (consisted of digital media company Otter Media); and WarnerMedia Direct (consisted of the HBO Max streaming service).
Despite spinning off Time Inc. in 2014, the company retained the Time Warner name from 1990 until 2018, when the company was renamed WarnerMedia after it was acquired by AT&T.[7] On October 22, 2016, AT&T officially announced that they intended on acquiring Time Warner for $85.4 billion (or $108.7 billion when including assumed Time Warner debt), valuing the company at $107.50 per share.[8][9] The proposed merger was confirmed on June 12, 2018,[10] after AT&T won an antitrust lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department filed in 2017 to attempt to block the acquisition,[11] and was completed two days later, when the company became a subsidiary of AT&T.[12] The company's final name was adopted a day later.[13] 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.[14][15] On May 17, 2021, nearly three years after the acquisition, AT&T decided to leave the entertainment business by announcing that it had proposed to sell its ownership of WarnerMedia in a merger with Discovery, Inc. to form a new publicly traded company, Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal closed on April 8, 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.[16]