WarnerMedia and Discovery Marry, Disney+ and Netflix Threatened

Jakarta –

Telecommunications giant AT&T announced Monday a deal to merge its content units WarnerMedia with Discovery. The move put one of Hollywood’s biggest studios to compete with media giants Netflix and Disney.

According to the agreement, AT&T will cancel the US $ 85 billion acquisition of Time Warner and form a new media company with Discovery, according to CNBC. The deal will create a new business, separate from AT&T, which could be worth up to $ 150 billion.

AT&T said it would receive an aggregate amount of US $ 43 billion in a combination of cash, debt and certain debt retention from WarnerMedia. AT&T shareholders will receive shares representing 71% of the new company, while Discovery’s shareholders will own 29%.

If approved by regulators, they predict the deal will be completed by mid-2022.

Meanwhile, Discovery’s shares today are up nearly 9%. Meanwhile, AT&T’s share price rose more than 3%.

AT&T said Discovery’s President and CEO David Zaslav will lead the new merged company. Its top board will consist of 13 members, seven representing AT&T and Discovery will appoint six members, including Zaslav.

“It’s exciting to combine historic brands, world-class journalism and iconic franchises under one roof,” said Zaslav.

Zaslav said the new company had a single mission to focus on telling the most amazing stories and doing it while having fun.

However, the future of current WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar is under threat. Stankey said Kilar was still in his current position, but that Zaslav would decide whether Kilar had a job at the new company.

AT&T itself owns CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. after acquiring Time Warner, since changing its name to WarnerMedia. Meanwhile Discovery has various channels such as Animal Planet, TLC and Discovery Channel.

Zaslav said at a press conference Monday local time that he believes the joint venture will be able to compete with top streaming services such as Disney + and Netflix. They will offer a combination of news and sports coupled with entertainment like “Game of Thrones” and Harry Potter.

(das / dna)

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