Warner Media, LLC., founded as Time Warner Inc., was an American multinational entertainment and media conglomerate headquartered at 30 Hudson Yards in Manhattan, New York City. After being acquired by AT&T in June 2018, WarnerMedia was reorganized as a privately-owned subsidiary.
The corporate predecessors to WarnerMedia are Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. (WCI). By the late 1960s, both companies began repositioning themselves as major players in cable television and mass media through multiple acquisitions, and they later underwent a stock-swap merger in March 1989, which was fully finalized on January 10, 1990. The newly established company, Time Warner, was the world’s largest media conglomerate for nearly 18 years and pursued further expansion by forming Time Warner Cable in 1992 and acquiring Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. A pivotal moment in Time Warner’s history was its landmark 2001 merger with AOL, which would end up becoming one of the worst business deals in corporate history.
Heavy losses from within AOL led Time Warner to pursue a years-long divestment strategy that culminated with Time Inc.’s spin-off in 2014. Despite spinning off Time Inc., the Time Warner name was kept until June 15, 2018, when AT&T completed its $108.7 billion acquisition of the company and renamed it to WarnerMedia. Under AT&T, a centralized approach was adopted, with the company’s subsidiaries being consolidated into five divisions and HBO Max being launched in 2020, to serve as the company's primary streaming service. These moves were intended to synergize WarnerMedia’s content libraries with AT&T’s wireless distribution, to reposition the telecom giant as a diversified entertainment giant, but lackluster results led AT&T to reverse course.
On May 17, 2021, AT&T announced that it would spin off WarnerMedia through a Reverse Morris Trust and have it merge with Discovery, Inc. to establish a new, publicly traded company. This new company, Warner Bros. Discovery, began operating on April 8, 2022, and assumed management of WarnerMedia’s assets. After the merger closed, WarnerMedia became an inactive shell corporation. In 2018, the company was ranked number 130 on the Fortune 500 list. Throughout its nearly 32-year run as a company, WarnerMedia owned a variety of large media companies (including AOL, Time Inc., TW Telecom, Time Warner Cable, AOL Time Warner Book Group, Six Flags, and Warner Music Group). These companies were either sold or spun off as independent companies.
Warner Communications and Time Warner's founder, Steve Ross, died on December 20, 1992, at the age of 65, due to complications of prostate cancer, from which he suffered in his final years. Time Warner's co-founder, Richard Munro, later died on May 9, 2024, at the age of 93.
Kinney National and Warner Communications (1969–1990)
WCI's history stems back to Kinney National Services, which purchased the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts film studio in 1969, and later reincorporated as Warner Communications Inc. (WCI) in 1972 after divesting non-core businesses. Kinney National (renamed to Kinney Services) originally began as a service-based conglomerate, but after purchasing several entertainment businesses during the late 1960s, Kinney soon pivoted away from the service industry. By mid-1971, Kinney separated its non-media businesses into National Kinney Corporation
At its reincorporation, Warner Communications served as the parent company for Warner Bros, National Periodical Publications (predecessor to DC Comics), Warner Cable (later Time Warner Cable), and Kinney Record Group International (renamed Warner-Elektra-Atlantic). Warner's longest-serving executive was Steven Ross. By 1984, Steven Ross was the sole Chairman, Chief Executive, and President of Warner Communications. The company made investments into the Sports Industry through Global Soccer Inc. and formed a joint venture with American Express known as Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. Warner-Amex would launch several cable channels, including MTV, Nickelodeon, and VH1. In May 1986, this venture was sold to the original Viacom. A noteworthy acquisition done by Warner Communications was its purchase of Atari Inc. in 1976. For several years, Warner enjoyed success with the gaming company until the sudden Video Game Crash of 1983. Suffering extensive losses, Warner divested parts of Atari along with several other companies it owned, and by the mid-1980s, WCI had rebounded in its financial performance.
Warner Communications' headquarters were at 75 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. It had 26,300 employees in 1985, and operating income of US$7.965 billion in 1986. Its main divisions were:
Time Warner/Time Warner Entertainment (1990–2001)
After several rounds of merger discussions, Time Inc. announced on March 4, 1989, that the two companies were to merge. If Warner and Time were to be successful in their merger, it would result in the world's largest media company. In response, Paramount Communications launched a counterbid of $12.2 billion to acquire Time Inc. in a stock-swap deal to block the merger. Time rejected Paramount's offer and requested a bigger bid of $14.9 billion. In response, Paramount filed a lawsuit in a Delaware Court to block the Time/Warner merger. The courts ruled in Time's favor twice, leading Paramount to end both its Time Inc. bids and the lawsuit and allowing the Time Warner merger to proceed on January 10, 1990.
Legally, the merger was structured as an acquisition of Warner Communications Inc. by Time Inc., with the latter changing its name to Time Warner Inc. The lawsuit by Paramount caused the mechanism of the merger to be changed such that Time Inc. had to take on significant debt to outright purchase all Warner Communications Inc.'s outstanding shares, which would not have been necessary in the original merger mechanism.
On June 30, 1992, Time Warner transferred most of its film, television production, music and cable businesses, including the Warner Bros., HBO, and Time Warner Cable assets, into Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. (TWEC), a new limited partnership with Toshiba and C. Itoh & Co. where each invested US$500 million for a 6.25% share. The deal announced in October 1991 was intended to relieve debt pressure from the Time Inc.–Warner Communications merger.
In 1993, US West joined the partnership with a US$2.5 billion investment for a 25% share. As part of the partnership, US West formed Time Warner Communications (also utilized as the brand name for cable operation previously under the ATC name), in order to bring telephone via fiber to the masses. By 1996, TWEC was owned 74.49% by Time Warner and the remainder by US West.
US West's stake eventually passed to acquired cable company MediaOne, then to AT&T Broadband in 1999 when that company acquired MediaOne, then finally to Comcast in 2001 when that company bought the AT&T Broadband division. Comcast sold their stake in the company in 2003, relegating the name to a subdivision under Time Warner Cable.
In 1991, HBO and Cinemax became the first premium pay services to offer multiplexing to cable customers, with companion channels supplementing the main networks. In 1993, HBO became the world's first digitally transmitted television service. In 1995, CNN introduced CNN.com which later became a leading destination for global digital news, both online and mobile. In 1996, Warner Bros. spearheaded the introduction of the DVD, which gradually replaced VHS tapes as the standard format for home video in the late 1990s and early to mid-2000s. In 1999, HBO became the first national cable television network to broadcast a high–definition version of its channel.
Time Warner Entertainment completed its purchase of Six Flags Theme Parks in 1993 after buying half of the company in 1991, saving it from financial trouble. The company was later sold to Oklahoma-based theme park operator Premier Parks under certain terms and conditions on April 1, 1998. Dick Parsons, already a director on the board since 1991, was hired as Time Warner president in 1995, although the division operational heads continued to report directly to chairman and CEO Gerald Levin.