AT&T CEO John Stankey Salutes WarnerMedia Staff As Discovery Deal Nears Close: “The Road Wasn’t Easy Or Clear”

deadline.com:

AT&T CEO John Stankey, who decided last spring to spin off WarnerMedia into a $43 billion merged entity with Discovery, has sent a bouquet to WarnerMedia staff as the deal gets set to close.In a memo to staff (read it in full below), Stankey praised the “remarkable body of work” accrued by WarnerMedia in the nearly three years of AT&T’s ownership.AT&T last year also spun off pay-TV operator DirecTV into a new entity 30%-owned by private equity firm TPG.Here’s the full memo:To my WarnerMedia Colleagues,As we work to finalize the combination of WarnerMedia and Discovery and launch Warner Bros.

Discovery, I wanted to share a few thoughts with you.In July of 2018, I wrote to you:We have a unique opportunity to truly lead in the transformation that’s taking place across media and entertainment, direct-to-consumer distribution, and technology.

We are at a rare inflection point where the direction and structure of content and distribution – which are central to how almost everyone on the planet relates to society and those around them – gets shaped for future decades.

Today, we can clearly see that you have created a remarkable body of work rising to the moment I highlighted nearly four years ago.