US: AT&T to change Time Warner’s name

Less than a day after AT&T completed its US$85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner, the telecommunications giant has rechristened the company as WarnerMedia.

According to Bloomberg, the new name was revealed in an internal memo circulated on Friday, June 15. The media company will remain home to such subsidiaries as Warner Bros Entertainment, DC Entertainment, HBO, CNN, and Turner Broadcasting. However, Variety adds that John Martin, who’s been CEO of Turner since early 2014, will leave the company. Jeff Bewkes, the former CEO of Time Warner, will remain as a senior adviser during the transition.

AT&T veteran John Stankey, who will oversee the new WarnerMedia, wrote in the memo that there will be “little change” to the daily operations of Warner Bros, HBO and Turner.

“Why WarnerMedia?” he wrote. “The short answer is that it tested very well externally as a naming convention that holds the valuable HBO, Turner and Warner Bros brands. In addition, we felt that maintaining an element of the proud, established and successful Time Warner is a testament and sign of respect for both its history and for you, as architects of that legacy.” Stankey also noted that the old name often created confusion, as many consumers “never learned to distinguish between Time Warner, the media company, and Time Warner, the former cable company.”

Full Content: Bloomberg

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