Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) require close consideration of motives, target choice, rationales, and management of the integration. Answer the following questions using illustrations from the Warner Bros Discovery merger:

a. Identify and discuss the various motives that are driving this merger.

b. Introduce the two main criteria for target choice in M&As and discuss their relative importance to this merger.

c. Use the typology of the Corporate Rationales to identify and briefly discuss the rationale behind the corporate parenting of the streaming businesses HBO Max and Discovery Plus.

d. Use the framework on managing integration in M&As to identify and discuss the approach(es) to integration being used in the Warner Bros Discovery merger.

In May 2021, Discovery announced that it was to form a marriage of necessity, merging with WarnerMedia, which was divested by its owner, AT&T, a telecoms giant. Along with HBO Max and Discovery Plus, the combined business encompasses the Warner Bros lm franchises and television studios (including DC entertainment) and Discovery's portfolio of lifestyle channels including HGTV, Food Network and Animal Planet, as well as AT&T properties CNN and TNT. So Discovery, which had started as a small cable network, had assumed ownership of a fabled Hollywood company that is home to Batman, Harry Potter, and many popular series, such as Sex in the City and Game of Thrones. The streaming wars 0\"er The Economist) Combined, the two companies would form the world's second largest media group by revenue, behind only Disney. Their hope is that this scale will allow them to survive an existential battle for viewers. The announcement caused speculation about further mergers, as panicked media companies sought their own partners. To survive online, media rms are combining. For some of them, it may be too late. At rst sight Warner and Discovery made an odd couple. The rst specialised in high-quality TV series and lms, such as \"Game of Thrones\The merged organization (ve: The Drum) In April 2022, the $43 billion merger created the mega-media conglomerate Warner Bros Discovery. The closure of the deal introduces the biggest pure entertainment brand to market, which includes two global streamers and too many broadcast and cable channels to count. The Discovery chief executive David Zaslav, who has over 30 years of experience in the industry, assumed control over the merged business. He said: \"With our collective assets and diversied business model, Warner Bros Discovery offers the most differentiated and complete portfolio of content across lm, television and streaming. We are condent that we can bring more choice to consumers around the globe while fostering creativity and creating value for shareholders.\" In a company statement, Warner Bros Discovery stated that its ad solutions \"include the strength of what both former organizations offered clients including advanced advertising scale, data-driven linear and programmatic, sponsored synergies and the best ad-light streaming services that extend into both cable and non-cable homes.\" On a $3 billion cost-saving mission, the two businesses have already started eliminating its duplicated roles. One studio insider told Deadline cuts on people could save more than $70m on its own. Jon Steinlauf will oversee sales, reporting to Bruce Campbell, who takes the post of chief revenue and strategy ofcer both former Discovery executives. On his appointment, Steinlauf said: \"Warner Bros Discovery will offer advertisers the most complementary portfolio of brands spanning news, sports, entertainment, scripted, unscripted and family-focused programming. Together, we will introduce unparalleled ad-supported streaming opportunities to our clients. I've spent the last 30 years of my career at Turner, Scripps and Discovery and have the utmost respect for the Warner brands.\" Other key appointments include Gunnar Wiedenfels as chief financial ofcer and Jean-Briac Perrette, president of Warner Bros Discovery Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment, with responsibility for HBO Max and Discovery Plus. Pre-merger it was revealed Discovery Plus and HBO Max will eventually be combined into a single streamer with ad-free and ad-light options, rather than offering the two services as a bundle. The company's subscriber numbers would top 100 million, with Discovery Plus at 22 million subscribers and HBO Max and HBO with 73.8 million. Wiedenfels previously said a bundle will be offered in the interim while the company builds out a merged streaming service. \"Right out of the gate, we're working on getting the bundling approach ready,\" Wiedenfels said. \"The main thrust is going to be harmonizing the technology platform. Building one very, very strong combined direct-to-consumer (D2C) product and platform, that's going to take a while.\" F urther developments from The Guardian) Media watchers were waiting to see how the new media powerhouse would reshape its business. In August 2022 a plan started to emerge. The studio announced it would permanently shelve an already-shot Batgirl movie to with an estimated $90m loss, a puzzling move said to be part of a larger shift in the company away from streaming. HBO Max subscribers then noticed that a handll of the original lms produced for the platform had been quietly removed. Rumours of staff layoffs and series cancelations swirled until the bomb was nally dropped by WarnerfDiscovery's CEO, David Zaslav: in 2023, HBO Max and Discovery Plus would be combined into a single entity. The decision to demolish the HBO Max brand and start over comes as a shock to industry observers, who have watched as Warner went all in on streaming during the pandemic\" s housebound early days. The company caused a stir with \"Project Popcorn\Zaslav isn't here to make friends. He's here to make money. Films have been cancelled, TV shows have been taken off HBO Max, executives have been let go, worsening the company's already notable diversity problem, and the company lost $20 billion off its market cap. Zaslav's plan is to focus the newly merged company on making as much money as cheaply as possible. When he joined Discovery in 2006, it was a small collection of education-oriented cable channels. Zaslav turned it into the reality TV empire we know today. He's made his money catering to audiences that don't pay for streaming but, instead, ip the channel on the TV and when they don't nd something to watch, pack up and head to the movie theatre. That means he's got to shi a company that's spent two years focusing its energies elsewhere. In the years leading up to the Wamer Bros. and Discovery merger, Warner Bros. underwent a radical transfom'ration. It went all-in, deciding to focus on streaming at the cost of its other businesses to compete with Netix, whose movies go straight to the streamer and only make short stops in theatres for awards eligibility. Theatre owners, already devastated by COVID, were furious at the new Warner Bros. plan. They're much happier now that Zaslav has reversed course widening release windows, and even moving some direct-to-streaming lms into theatres. Direct to streaming makes a lot of sense for Netix, a company with a very small distribution arm. Warner Bros. Discovery has a whole apparatus built up to make lots of money off lms in theatres. Why would the company throw away all that potential money just to boost the $15-a month subscriptions from HBO Max? Instead, the company can put the movies in theatres and then move them to the streaming service and double dip on the consumers. At Warner Bros. Discovery, Zaslav is turning off the content tap and reorienting the company into something much more scally conservative. Meanwhile, the company's stock was on a downward spiral. In late September 2022, the leadership of Warner Bros Discovery held a company-wide meeting over Zoom in which they laid out the state of the industry. They acknowledged there would be tough times ahead along with a range of cost-cutting moves and layoffs across all divisions, most signicantly from the merging of HBO Max and Discovery Plus. Compilation sources the text above is excerpted from: Bowler, H. (2022) \"That you need to know about the Warner Bros Discovery merger. The Drum, 12 April. Bramesco, C. (2022) Cutting costs, merging, shelving Batgirl: is this the end of HBO Max? The Guardian, 8 August. Cranz, A. (2022) HBO Max and Warner Bros Discovery seem to be on re, and that's on purpose. T he Verge, 28 August. D'Alessandro, A. Andreeva, N., and Patten, D. (2022) Warner Bros Discovery CEO on rumoured merger talks. Deadline, 28 September. The Economist (2021) Monster of a merger. 22 May