WarnerMedia CEO Announces Exit Ahead Of Merger With Discovery

(RTTNews) - WarnerMedia chief executive Jason Kilar said on Tuesday that he will be departing from the company now that Discovery's acquisition of the media conglomerate is almost complete.

In an internal memo to employees, he said, "With the pending transaction with Discovery nearing close, now is the right time to share with each of you that I will be departing this amazing company. "

In his note, Kilar described leading WarnerMedia as "the honor of my lifetime." He added, "My heart is so full, and I am beyond thankful to each of you. "There is no better team on the planet, and I will savour every last step as I wander the lot in Burbank several more times this week, with this team on my mind, always."

Kilar's resignation comes as no surprise. It was widely suspected that he would exit WarnerMedia, CNN's parent company, after the completion of the merger.

The announcement came the same day that AT&T (T) announced a stock dividend, which would give those holding AT&T common stock some shares in Warner Bros.

WarnerMedia and Discovery are expected to formally merge next week. The new company will be led by Discovery chief executive David Zaslav. The deal between AT&T and Discovery was announced last May and was approved by the government in February.

Kilar brought a new streaming-era mentality to a set of businesses including HBO and CNN, which were historically siloed and focused on cable and satellite relationships. In streaming, he said that what is important is customer acquisition, engagement, and retention i.e keeping subscribers returning for fresh and compelling content. Speaking on CNBC shortly after he sent his internal memo, Kilar said his advice to the leaders of Warner Bros. Discovery would be to "start and end with storytelling and stick to that knitting, and also recognize what's working really well, which is clearly the streaming side of the business and gaming side of the business as well." He also predicted further strengthening in the media business.

Setting aside Apple and Amazon "because they have their own business models," he said, "when it comes to the storytelling companies, there's probably going to be three that ultimately are scaled players. We're certainly one of them, and the other two are Netflix and Disney. I think it will be a hard road for others to catch up and I think as a result, you're probably going to see a lot of changes happening in the industry over the next several years."