This certainly affects DC Comics, CW and DC Movies
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AT&T, in Abrupt Turn, Will Shed Media Business in Deal With Discovery https://nyti.ms/2S0mlC6
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Woah, I just saw this earlier. Didn’t totally click what it meant until right now. I wonder how this will affect DCUI and HBO MAX? Hopefully, not a lot…
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What does “spinning off” mean? Does AT&T no longer own Warner and DC?
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The LA Times story is here. Even though I’m on the other side of the country, I do tend to trust them to cover the business angles in a less-biased manner than the trades perhaps do. Of course, LA is a one-industry town so it’s all very bound up together.
@Mae : That will be the case once it goes through all the regulatory approvals, yes. 2 years into it and they’re giving up. I’ll save my hottest question for the Office Hours thread.
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A few more articles:
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Here we go again! I just hope this doesn’t badly effect people’s job at DC Comics and DC Universe Infinite as well.
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Do not worry guys, I have hordes of contingency plans for this.
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Well, it may mean that their parent company isn’t $174 Billion in debt (I don’t know what Discovery’s balance sheet is like). But apparently the deal will be that a new company will be created, and both WarnerMedia and the current Discovery Inc. will be merged into it. Discovery’s president will be the CEO of the new company. AT&T stockholders (of which I am one, but I don’t have nearly as much of their stock as the average retired lineman) will get shares in the new company.
Interestingly, the chairman of Discovery Inc. is John Malone, who built the largest cable TV operator in the US years ago and then sold it to AT&T; that was spun off long ago and is now Comcast. Malone took some of his money and bought the entire shoreline of a good-sized lake in northwestern Maine (he can’t buy the lake itself since it’s state property, but we peons need a float plane to access it).
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The part I like
From the Hollywood Reporter article:
If a major changing of the guard is indeed to come at WarnerMedia, there will be schadenfreude. In the aftermath of AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, new management has purged the old guard, including veterans with a sense of how to run legacy media businesses. Some of those people, as well as others in Hollywood, have bristled at the certitude of Stankey’s chosen WarnerMedia boss, Kilar. Whatever big checks WarnerMedia has written to smooth over its decision to blindside Hollywood with its day-and-date streaming strategy in December, for example, the sting of it lingers. So does the purge of those who had spent careers building WarnerMedia assets.
“It wasn’t perfect but it really was a cool place,” recalls one former insider, who says AT&T management “did not have to destroy the DNA” that made these places special before adding “The shame of it. The arrogance.”
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Am I reading this right that AT&T is looking to offload Warner Bros? If I am, it sounds like a deal could be made this week to sell to Discovery? What does this mean for DC if that happens? Anyone more knowledgeable on here have any other information?
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Another link to the story here - AT&T to spin off HBO, other WarnerMedia assets in a huge deal with Discovery. What went wrong?
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The story I read said it would take at least a year for the deal to close, so it will be a bit before we see any changes from it.
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I watched a joint interview with the CEO of Discovery and the CEO of AT&T. The first thing that the Discovery CEO mentioned was the IP for DC Comics as something he is excited about. So I feel pretty good about the whole thing. Not to mention that Discovery is a media company where none of their products overlap.
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What I worry about
Since AT&T
Is shedding
WarnerMedia assets
Why invest
ANYTHING
To these properties?
Since there continued ownership
Is of a short duration
Why not
Go on a massive
Cost cutting initiative
To cut
The losses
These assets are generating
This is a dangerous time
For the DC properties
AT&T has nothing to lose
With that approach.
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Interesting. So the way I understand it, an independent company is being created that would encompass WB and Discovery. On one hand, it’s nice that this new media creating company would be just that, a media creation company without oversight from AT&T. On the other hand, the burning question I think all of us have is: what does that mean for the comics? I hope DC Comics can operate with some level of independence as well.
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I guess another question would be… what does that mean for all the current DC movies & shows and those they have in development? Given that the merger would take time to complete, near term effects are doubtful. However, with inevitable new leadership, can’t help but wonder what the next “pivot” will look like. Seems to be a regular thing with DC, movies & comics alike.
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