AT&T’s big experiment in entertainment is over (it's breaking up with Daenerys)

90 Day Fiancé meets GOT... AT&T is ditching the entertainment biz, leaving its media assets to fend for themselves. The telecom giant reached a deal with Discovery to combine their media assets into a new, publicly-traded company (name TBD). Meet the cast...

• AT&T: Famous for its phone plans, but also for buying WarnerMedia for $81B in 2018. That gave it CNN, HBO, TBS, and Warner Bros. In 2015, it snagged DirecTV.
• Discovery: Famous for reality shows like Shark Week, Extreme Makeover, and 90 Day Fiancé. Its networks: Food Network, Animal Planet, HGTV, and... Discovery Channel.

Do you think you're better off alone?... If the deal is approved, AT&T will get $43B — around half of what it paid for Warner (womp). AT&T's media biz has struggled thanks to cord-cutting, streaming, and pandemic movie theater closures. In February, it sold a large stake in its DirecTV business. The Warner spin-off marks the end of AT&T's big bet on entertainment — which ended up costing it $93B. Some big plot points:

• 71%: AT&T shareholders' stake in the new company. Discovery shareholders get the rest.
• $20B: How much AT&T and Discovery spend on content combined (more than Netflix).
• Two streaming services: HBO Max and Discovery+. TBD if they'll merge.