Time for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to take the spotlight.
AT&T (NYSE:T) and Discovery (DISCA) on Friday closed the $43 billion transaction that merges their media operations into a new key industry player – worth at least $114 billion, and potentially up to $140 billion and beyond depending on the valuation approach.
It sets up the new WBD to launch business with a fresh start Monday morning.
The merger brings together the former Time Warner – sporting a cavalcade of film, TV and cable operations in the venerable Warner Bros., HBO and Cinemax, Turner Broadcasting, and CNN, among many other properties – with a sprawling global TV/cable and sports operation at Discovery (parent of U.S. networks including Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Animal Planet and more).
The deal marks a new era for the Warner Bros. properties, and an end to a turbulent three years under AT&T, where the telecom struggled to mesh cultures and make a futuristic fit between communications infrastructure and media.
AT&T now moves forward as a significantly leaner company focused primarily on wireless communications and fiber-optic networking (with a notably smaller dividend).
AT&T (T) CEO John Stankey echoed support for the transaction in a farewell memo to staff Friday.
“You are to be congratulated and commended. The road wasn’t easy or clear,” he continues, reserving special thanks for exiting WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar.
“I remain confident we have set the right path,” he continues. “Over time, the combination of WarnerMedia and Discovery will bring forth a stronger company and quicken the already strong pace of innovation and change you have established.”
The combined company is projected to pull in revenues of $54 billion next year.
The new company revealed a logo to go with the new start, and it’s likely to draw more praise than an “initial” logo it produced around the time of the deal’s announcement – a design criticized by many as “dated”:
Updated: Warner Bros. Discovery will begin trading on Monday on Nasdaq under the “WBD” ticker.
Under the terms of the Reverse Morris Trust deal, at closing, AT&T received $40.4 billion in cash and WarnerMedia’s retention of certain debt. And AT&T shareholders received 0.241917 shares of WBD for each share of AT&T held.
As a result, AT&T shareholders received 1.7 billion shares of WBD, about 71% of the total. Discovery shareholders own the remainder of the new company.
“With our collective assets and diversified business model, Warner Bros. Discovery offers the most differentiated and complete portfolio of content across film, television and streaming. We are confident that we can bring more choice to consumers around the globe while fostering creativity and creating value for shareholders,” says Zaslav.
“With the close of this transaction, we expect to invest at record levels in our growth areas of 5G and fiber, where we have strong momentum, while we work to become America’s best broadband company. At the same time, we’ll sharpen our focus on returns to shareholders,” says Stankey.
The companies last month offered details of trading in securities and tickers between the record date (April 5) and Friday’s closing.
New CEO David Zaslav, meanwhile, has set up top leadership that leans heavily to the Discovery side, as several former WarnerMedia executives exit.