BENGALURU, India (Reuters) – WarnerMedia and Discovery, a unit of AT&T Telecom Group, have completed the merger of the two companies, the companies announced late Friday.
The combined group, Warner Bros. Discovery, will begin trading on the Nasdaq on Monday under the “WBD” symbol.
In May of last year, as the companies began plans to merge to become an independent media conglomerate, AT&T chose to focus more on its mobile phone business and Discovery looking to strengthen its content library.
“With the completion of this transaction, we expect record investments in our growth areas of 5G and fiber optics, where we have good momentum,” said AT&T Chief Executive John Stankey.
The Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio includes the Discovery Channel, Warner Bros. Entertainment, CNN, HBO, Cartoon Network; In addition to the Discovery+ and HBO Max streaming services; and franchises such as “Batman” and “Harry Potter”.
One of the priorities for David Zaslav, the Discovery veteran who will lead the combined company, is to make streaming video as profitable as traditional TV businesses, analysts said.
On Thursday, Discovery announced the executive team that will lead Warner Bros. The group includes several executives who worked with Zaslav when he was at US broadcaster NBC.
Nine senior WarnerMedia executives, including chief executive Jason Keeler and head of television studios and channels Ann Sarnoff, resigned earlier this week ahead of the formation of the combined company.
