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Discovery’s shareholders approved its merger with WarnerMedia on Friday, laying the groundwork for the two companies to merge in a matter of weeks.
Discovery said in a statement that “one of the few remaining closing conditions for the merger has been completed” with shareholder approval.
Merger cleared regulatory hurdle In February, it enabled Friday’s shareholder vote, which was largely expected to pass. John Malone, billionaire chairman of Liberty Media, and the Newhouse family, which owns Condé Nast, control more than 40 percent of the vote among Discovery shareholders and blessed the merger almost a year ago. Both Mr. Malone and Steven Newhouse are in the new Warner Bros. He will have board seats at Discovery.
When merged, the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO, CNN, and Warner Bros. It will become one of the nation’s largest media companies, combining film and TV studios with Discovery’s massive unscripted entertainment empire. It will also bring together HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services under the same roof. CNN announced on Friday that its streaming service CNN+ will launch for $6 a month on March 29.
With the shareholder vote gone, the deal is just a few steps away from closing. Discovery will continue to collect more than $30 billion in debt for the new company. Telecommunications giant AT&T, which now owns WarnerMedia, will need a few more weeks to finish shutting down its entertainment division.
By Friday, AT&T executives seemed quite ready to turn the page from their unfortunate foray into Hollywood. AT&T executives barely mentioned WarnerMedia at a virtual meeting for investors Friday and focused instead on broadband and wireless service. “We are close to the starting line of a new era for AT&T,” said AT&T CEO John Stankey.
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