TIMELINE-From Time Inc to Discovery: Warner Bros breakup puts spotlight on checkered M&A history
June 9 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O, home to HBO and CNN, said on Monday it would split into two companies, the latest twist in its decades-long history of high-stakes mergers and breakups.
Date | Event |
1922 | Time Inc was founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden to house Time magazine, a weekly news publication that made world affairs accessible to the average reader. The first issue of Time magazine was published in March 1923. |
1923 | Warner Bros was founded by brothers Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner as a film studio in Hollywood. It revolutionized cinema with the introduction of synchronized sound in films. |
1969 | Kinney National Company, a conglomerate that later transitioned into media, buys Warner Bros-Seven Arts and later spins off its non-media businesses. |
1972 | HBO is founded by Charles Dolan with backing from Time. It was the first U.S. subscription-based cable network, offering uncut, commercial-free movies and live sports, pioneering premium cable television. |
1990 | Time Inc merges with Warner Communications in a $14 billion deal, hailed as a "marriage of content and distribution," creating Time Warner, then the largest media company in the world. |
1996 | Time Warner merges with Turner Broadcasting, gaining Cartoon Network, CNN, TNT and a vast classic film library. |
2000 | Time Warner merges with AOL, forming AOL Time Warner, the largest merger in history at the time, aiming to merge traditional and digital media. |
2002 | AOL Time Warner merger begins to unravel as AOL's value collapses with the launch of an SEC investigation, prompted by allegations of accounting irregularities and inflated revenue reports at AOL. |
2003 | CEO Steve Case resigns from AOL Time Warner. |
2004 | Time Warner sells Warner Music to a private equity group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. for $2.6 billion. |
2009 | Time Warner fully spins off Time Warner Cable, which had already been partially separated in 2007, ending its role in cable distribution. |
2009 | Time Warner spins off AOL. |
2013 | Time Warner spins off Time, its magazine division, which includes Time, People, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, marking its formal exit from publishing. |
2016 | AT&T announces acquisition of Time Warner for $85 billion. |
2018 | AT&T completes its acquisition of Time Warner after regulator's approval, renaming it WarnerMedia. |
2021 | AT&T announced it would spin off WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery Inc to create a new standalone media company. |
2022 | WarnerMedia and Discovery complete their merger in a $43 billion deal. |
2025 | Warner Bros Discovery announces it would separate into two companies — one focusing on streaming and studios businesses, while the second will house its cable TV assets. |
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