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We now get into Disney's closest rival, WarnerMedia! Name History: TimeWarner (1990-2001) Tribune TimeWarner (2001-2002) TribuneWarner (2002-2016) WarnerMedia (2016-present) Short History: TimeWarner was founded in 1990 as a merger between Warner Communications and Time, Inc. The company initially held assets in all sorts of industries. This includes but isn't limited to feature film and TV production companies, record labels, magazines, comics and cable/telecommunication services. In 1993, TimeWarner acquired Six Flags, the largest theme park chain in the United States at the time. The next year, the company acquired the American assets of the French banking company Credit Lyonnais, most notably Cannon Pictures. LeBlanc Corporation, parent company of theme park operator Premier Parks, acquired a 55% stake in TimeWarner. This results in Premier's parks moving over to Six Flags and adopting the chain's name. After a failed merger with AOL, TimeWarner would merge with Tribune Broadcasting in 2001 with its parent company (Tribune Media) acquiring the remaining 45% of the newly merged company. During the merger, it was known as Tribune TimeWarner. The name of the company was renamed to Tribune Warner only a year later. Several smaller-market WB affiliates and non-WB affiliates owned by Tribune Broadcasting were sold to a new company of the same name following the merger. TribuneWarner would sell several non-core brands by 2005, in order to focus exclusively within the film, television, magazine, and comic industries. LeBlanc sold off its stake in TribuneWarner in 2008 in order to focus its more profitable theme park and leisure assets. Tribune would also decrease its stake to 30%. AT&T, the largest American telecommunications provider would acquire TribuneWarner in 2011. AT&T would immediately move its cable networks to TribuneWarner after the merger. TribuneWarner would change its name to WarnerMedia, after its 5-year deal to retain the Tribune name expired. WarnerMedia would acquire Otter Media (parent company of Rooster Teeth and Crunchyroll) from The Chernin Group in 2018. As AT&T wanted to focus more on its mobile internet, telecommunications and cable services, it would sell off WarnerMedia to private equity firm TPG Inc. in 2021.
