WarnerMedia (Johnsonverse)

WarnerMedia Inc. (traded as WarnerMedia) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It is headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by Steve Ross, and was purchased by D⁠u⁠b⁠é Incorporated in 1983 for $100 million. Time Warner was created in 1990, following a merger between Time Inc. and Warner Communications, followed by a merger with AOL in 2001 resulting in its rename to AOL Time Warner. It was renamed to WarnerMedia in 2011. The company has film, television and cable operations, with its assets including Warner Studios & Networks (consisting of the entertainment assets of Turner Broadcasting and Discovery, Inc. as well as Warner Bros., which itself consists of the film, animation, television studios, the company's home entertainment division and Studio Distribution Services, its joint venture with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, DC Comics, WCW, New Line Cinema, and The WB television network); Warner Music Group (consisting of several music labels such as Warner Bros. Records, Atlantic Records, and Electra Records, as well as music publisher Warner Chappell Music), Warner News & Sports (consisting of the news and sports assets of Turner Broadcasting, including CNN and Turner Sports, as well as Time); Warner Sales & Distribution (consisting of digital media company Otter Media); and Warner Direct (consisting of AOL and the Warner Max streaming service).
The company's previous assets included TW Telecom, Time Warner Cable, and AOL Time Warner Book Group; these operations were either sold to others or spun off as independent companies. The company was ranked No. 98 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
== History ==
=== Warner Communications (1972–1983) ===
On February 10, 1972, the entertainment assets of the Kinney National Company reincorporated as Warner Communications due to a financial scandal involving price fixing in its parking operations. Warner Communications served as the parent company for Warner Bros., the Warner Music Group (WMG), and Warner Cable during the 1970s and 1980s. It also owned DC Comics and Mad magazine. The European publishing division, which produced magazines and comics, was known as Williams Publishing; thanks to a prior acquisition (from Gilberton World-Wide Publications), it had European-language branches in the UK, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. Most of these publishers were sold off around 1979.
During its time as Warner Communications, the company made a number of further acquisitions. In 1979, Warner formed a joint venture with credit card company American Express called Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. This company owned such cable channels as MTV, Nickelodeon, The Movie Channel, and VH1 (which was launched in 1985 on the channel space left by Turner's Cable Music Channel). Warner bought out American Express's half in 1984 and sold the venture a year later to the original iteration of Viacom, which renamed it MTV Networks (now known as Paramount Media Networks). In 1982, Warner purchased Popular Library from CBS Publications.
From 1976 to 1984, Warner owned Atari, Inc., but suffered substantial losses due to the video game crash of 1983, and had to spin them off in 1984. 
On March 1, 1982, D⁠u⁠b⁠é Incorporated announced that it would purchase Warner as a way to get into the entertainment business. The merger was completed on January 25, 1983.
=== D⁠u⁠b⁠é acquisition (1983–1990) ===
During the summer of 1989, Paramount Communications (then Gulf+Western) launched a $12.2 billion hostile bid to acquire Time, Inc. in an attempt to end a stock-swap merger deal between Time and Warner Communications. Time raised its bid to $14.9 billion in cash and stock. Paramount responded by filing a lawsuit in a Delaware court to block the Time Warner merger. The court ruled twice in favor of Time, forcing Paramount to drop both the Time acquisition and the lawsuit, and allowing the two companies to merge, which was completed on January 10, 1990.
=== Time-Warner (1990–2001) and Time Warner Entertainment (1992–2001) ===
US West partnered with Time Warner in 1993 to form what is now known as TW Telecom, initially known as 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. US West also took a 26% stake in the entertainment portion of the company, calling that division Time Warner Entertainment. 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.
On October 10, 1996, Time Warner acquired Turner Broadcasting System, which was established by Ted Turner in 1965. Not only did this result in the company (in a way) re-entering the basic cable television industry (in regards to nationally available channels), but Warner Bros. also regained the rights to their pre-1950 film library, which by then had been owned by Turner (the films are still technically held by Turner, but WB is responsible for sales and distribution), while Turner gained access to WB's post-1950 library, as well as other WB-owned properties. The Turner deal also brought two separate film companies, New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment, into the Time Warner fold.
Time Warner 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.
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.
=== AOL Time Warner (2001–2011) ===
In January 2000, D⁠u⁠b⁠é stated its intentions to purchase America Online (AOL) for $164 billion. Time Warner had been looking for a way to embrace the digital revolution, while AOL wanted to anchor its stock price with more tangible assets.
The deal, officially filed on February 11, 2000, employed a merger structure in which each original company merged into a newly created entity. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cleared the deal on December 14, 2000, and gave final approval on January 11, 2001; the company completed the merger later that day. The deal was approved on the same day by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and had already been cleared by the European Commission (EC) on October 11, 2000.
AOL Time Warner Inc., as the company was then called, was supposed to be a merger of equals with top executives from both sides. Gerald Levin, who had served as chairman and CEO of Time Warner, was CEO of the new company. AOL co-founder Steve Case served as Executive Chairman of the board of directors, Robert W. Pittman (president and COO of AOL) and Dick Parsons (president of Time Warner) served as Co-Chief Operating Officers, and J. Michael Kelly (the CFO from AOL) became the chief financial officer.
According to AOL President and COO Bob Pittman, the slow-moving Time Warner would now take off at Internet speed, accelerated by AOL: "All you need to do is put a catalyst to [Time Warner], and in a short period, you can alter the growth rate. The growth rate will be like an Internet company." The vision for Time Warner's future seemed clear and straightforward; by tapping into AOL, Time Warner would reach deep into the homes of tens of millions of new customers. AOL would use Time Warner's high-speed cable lines to deliver to its subscribers Time Warner's branded magazines, books, music, and movies. This would have created 130 million subscription relationships.
=== WarnerMedia (2011–present) ===
== Units ==
== Leadership ==
Category:Johnsonverse