The merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Discovery into its own spin-off company has cleared U.S. regulators – the last major hurdle for the $43 billion deal.
The approval has come even faster than anticipated and is a major step forward to closing the deal, especially in the wake of European regulators having already approved the deal as well.
Discovery shareholders still need to approve the transaction, but major stakeholders are said to be already committed. AT&T first announced plans to spin off WarnerMedia last May with the transaction expected to close in the second quarter of this year.
The combined company will house two streaming services in Discovery+ and HBO Max, the Warner Bros. studio and Warner Media cable networks including CNN.
The news comes as another megamerger has fallen apart with NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. announcing the termination of the $40 billion transaction whereby NVIDIA was to acquire British design firm ARM Limited in the biggest chip deal in history.
Significant regulatory challenges have been cited as preventing the consummation of the transaction and so Arm will now start preparations for a public offering.
Source: THR
