(Reuters) -Warner Bros Discovery ( WBD ), home to HBO and CNN, said on Monday it would split into two companies, the latest twist in its decades-long history of high-stakes mergers and breakups.

Date Event

1922 Time Inc was founded by Henry Luce and Briton

Hadden to house Time magazine, a weekly news

publication that made world affairs

accessible to the average reader. The first

issue of Time magazine was published in March

1923.

1923 Warner Bros was founded by brothers Harry,

Albert, Sam and Jack Warner as a film studio

in Hollywood. It revolutionized cinema with

the introduction of synchronized sound in

films.

1969  Kinney National Company, a conglomerate that

later transitioned into media, buys Warner

Bros-Seven Arts and later spins off its

non-media businesses.

1972 HBO is founded by Charles Dolan with backing

from Time. It was the first U.S.

subscription-based cable network, offering

uncut, commercial-free movies and live

sports, pioneering premium cable television.

1990 Time Inc merges with Warner Communications in

a $14 billion deal, hailed as a "marriage of

content and distribution," creating Time

Warner, then the largest media company in the

world.

1996  Time Warner merges with Turner Broadcasting,

gaining Cartoon Network, CNN, TNT and a vast

classic film library.

2000  Time Warner merges with AOL, forming AOL Time

Warner, the largest merger in history at the

time, aiming to merge traditional and digital

media.

2002 AOL Time Warner merger begins to unravel as

AOL's value collapses with the launch of an

SEC investigation, prompted by allegations of

accounting irregularities and inflated

revenue reports at AOL.

2003 CEO Steve Case resigns from AOL Time Warner.

2004 Time Warner sells Warner Music to a private

equity group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. for

$2.6 billion.

2009 Time Warner fully spins off Time Warner

Cable, which had already been partially

separated in 2007, ending its role in cable

distribution.

2009  Time Warner spins off AOL. 

2013 Time Warner spins off Time, its magazine

division, which includes Time, People,

Fortune and Sports Illustrated, marking its

formal exit from publishing.

2016 AT&T announces acquisition of Time Warner for

$85 billion.

2018 AT&T completes its acquisition of Time Warner

after regulator's approval, renaming it

WarnerMedia.

2021 AT&T announced it would spin off WarnerMedia

and merge it with Discovery Inc to create a

new standalone media company.

2022 WarnerMedia and Discovery complete their

merger in a $43 billion deal.

2025 Warner Bros Discovery ( WBD ) announces it would

separate into two companies - one focusing on

streaming and studios businesses, while the

second will house its cable TV assets.