AT&T-owned WarnerMedia and Discovery hope to rival Netflix and Disney for eyeballs in the streaming market. The two executives, who said they had previously bonded over "golf and eating", ended up talking for hours as Zaslav pitched Stankey on merging Discovery with WarnerMedia. During the hush-hush negotiations, code named Project Columbus, AT&T was referred to as Armstrong, WarnerMedia as Magellan and Discovery as Drake. The two sides are still discussing a real name for the combined company: ideas under consideration include "Warner Discovery", "Warner Bros Discovery" and "Warner Discovery Media". One WarnerMedia executive said it adds "another year of turmoil" to what had been four years of "uncertainty and indecision".

Source: New Zealand Herald May 19, 2021 00:00 UTC