The merger of Discovery and Warner Bros. has officially come to a close and the combined company will be known as Warner Bros. Discovery from here on out.
It has been announced that the deal is now officially closed and Warner Bros. Discovery is now a done deal. WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar is exiting the newly combined company, and Discovery CEO David Zaslav will be running the combined operations going forward. Toby Emmerich, Casey Bloys and Channing Dungey, heads of Warner Bros Pictures, HBO and Warner Bros TV, respectively, have gotten votes of confidence to retain their positions.
This new deal makes for a gigantic media entity between the two former companies. WarnerMedia brings with it HBO, HBO Max, CNN, Warner Bros., DC Films, New Line Cinema, TBS, TNT, TruTV, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, Turner Sports, Rooster Teeth, among other ventures such as its partial ownership of The CW Network along with Paramount. Discovery includes Discovery Plus, Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Travel Channel, Turbo/Velocity, Animal Planet, Science Channel, and OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network).
The new company will begin trading on the stock exchange on Monday under the ticker symbol WBD.
With HBO Max and Discovery Plus both existing as streaming services, a consolidation of the two services is inevitable, but won’t happen immediately.
Town hall meetings are scheduled for next week for details of new initiatives to be shared with all of the company’s divisions.
