Next year, Warner Bros. Studios — which was founded in 1923 in Hollywood — will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Celebrations are being planned, as indicated by the commemorative logo seen above.
Since its inception, the studio has been taken over by seven different corporate entities, and has gone through four name changes. The studio will be celebrating this new milestone under yet another corporate owner, Discovery, Inc., and with a new name, Warner Bros. Discovery.
It all started in 1956 when WB was sold to Boston banker Serge Semenenko. Then, in 1966, it was sold to Sever Arts Productions, which was run by Canadian investors Elliot and Kenneth Hyman. Two years later the studio was taken over by Kinney National Company, run by Steve Ross.
In 1989, Warner Bros. merged with publisher Time, Inc., run by Gerald M. Levin, and Time subsequently acquired it. In 2000, Time Warner (which was the studio’s new name at the time) was taken over by Internet company AOL, which was run by AOL co-founder Stephen M. Case, and renamed AOL-Time Warner.
By 2002, AOL-Time Warner had suffered a $54 billion loss caused by AOL, and in 2009, Time Warner spun off AOL.
In 2018, Time Warner was acquired by telephone giant AT&T and renamed Warner Media. Finally, in 2021, AT&T began talks with Discovery, Inc. to take over the studio, which was renamed Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal is expected to be finalized next month.
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