Discovery Will Become Warner Bros. Discovery After WarnerMedia Merger

The new media company spinning off from the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery will imaginatively be called--wait for it: Warner Bros. Discovery. According to The Wall Street Journal, the merger between the two companies won't be finalized and fully integrated until sometime in 2022.

Discovery CEO David Zaslav will be in charge of the merged group, which will marry WarnerMedia's formidable roster of iconic characters and properties with Discovery's sizable archive of unscripted shows and growing businesses sports business in Europe and also news. AT&T shareholders will own 71% of the new company. Zaslav announced the new name Tuesday from a town hall with WarnerMedia employees from the Warner Bros. studio's Burbank lot, alongside WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar.

"Warner Bros. Discovery will aspire to be the most innovative, exciting and fun place to tell stories in the world--that is what the company will be about," Zaslav said in a statement. "We love the new company's name because it represents the combination of Warner Bros.' fabled hundred year legacy of creative, authentic storytelling and taking bold risks to bring the most amazing stories to life, with Discovery's global brand that has always stood brightly for integrity, innovation and inspiration."

Zaslav added that the hope for the Warner Bros. Discovery family will be to make it "the best and most exciting place in the world to tell big, important, and impactful stories across any genre--and across any platform: film, television, and streaming."

The company's tagline will be, "the stuff that dreams are made of," which is a nod to the 1941 Warner Bros. film, The Maltese Falcon.