WarnerMedia and Discovery will join forces to create one of the nation’s biggest media companies after AT&T reportedly agreed to spin off its media wing. The New York Times reports that AT&T struck a deal Monday to merge WarnerMedia group with fellow media giant Discovery in a move that will see HBO, Warner Bros. studios, and CNN all brought into an even bigger multibillion-dollar empire. The deal is expected to be completed next year, according to the Times. Last year, WarnerMedia and Discovery raked in a combined total of $41 billion in sales—if that was repeated at the new merged company, it would become the second-biggest media company in the U.S. behind Disney. The Guardian reports that AT&T is expected to control most of the new company when it’s created in 2022, but David Zaslav, the chief executive of Discovery, is frontrunner to lead it.
