(Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery has become the latest multinational to break up its business, with a plan to separate its studios and streaming business from its fading cable television networks.
The two-way split of the company, formed out of a merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2022, marks the latest move in the unraveling of decades of consolidation in the media sector.
Here is a list of some of the biggest U.S. corporate splits from the recent past.
YEAR COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Warner Bros Discovery
Warner Bros says it will
2025 Discovery split
into two companies,
separating its studios and streaming
business from its cable television
networks, in a tax-free transaction.
2025 Honeywell is
Honeywell splitting
into three independently
listed companies, separating its
aerospace and automation businesses
into separate entities, alongside its
previously announced
spin-off of the advanced
materials unit.
2024 Industrial products maker
Fortive Fortive says it plans to
spin off
its Precision
Technologies segment, creating two
independent, publicly traded
companies
2024 DuPont DuPont says it will separate its
electronics and water businesses in
tax-free transactions, while the new
DuPont will continue as a diversified
industrial company.
2024 Masimo Corp Masimo says it is evaluating a
proposed spinoff of its consumer
business, including its consumer
health and audio products. The firm
says it will retain its healthcare
and telehealth products, and that the
spinoff will improve the
profitability of its healthcare
business.
2023 Lionsgate Lionsgate says it will spin off its
studio unit in a blank-check deal.
Says its studio business will merge
with the Screaming Eagle Acquisition
Corp SPAC to create a new public firm
for Lionsgate's film and television
assets.
2023 Citigroup Citi says it will split its Mexico
retail unit, known as Banamex, from
its corporate and investment banking
business in the country by the second
half of 2024. The retail unit should
begin the process of going public in
2025.
2023 Edwards Edwards Lifesciences says it will
Lifesciences spin off its critical care unit at
the end of 2024 to concentrate on its
larger heart devices business.
2023 Western Western Digital says it will spin off
Digital its flash memory business - that has
been grappling with a supply glut -
after talks to merge the unit with
Japan's Kioxia stall.
2022 Medtronic Medtronic says it will spin off its
patient-monitoring and respiratory
interventions businesses into a new
company as it seeks a streamlined
portfolio and faster revenue growth.
2022 Danaher Corp Medical technology firm Danaher Corp
says it will separate its
Environmental & Applied Solutions
segment to grow its Life Sciences and
Diagnostics businesses.
2022 Laboratory Labcorp says it will spin off its
Corp of wholly owned business focused on
America clinical drug trials. Its Fortrea
Holdings clinical development unit is now
listed on the Nasdaq.
2022 3M Co 3M Co says it plans to spin off its
healthcare business into a separate
public-listed company. It says the
new company will be called Solventum
and names Bryan Hanson CEO.
2022 Kellogg Co Kellogg spins off its North American
cereals business into WK Kellogg Co
and its global snacking business into
Kellanova.
2022 AT&T AT&T spins off WarnerMedia in a $43
billion transaction to merge its
media properties with Discovery Inc.
The new company is called Warner Bros
Discovery.
2021 Johnson & Johnson & Johnson says it plans to
Johnson break up into two companies,
splitting its consumer health
division. In 2023, it spins off and
lists its consumer health business,
Kenvue.
2021 General General Electric says it will split
Electric Co into three public companies focusing
on energy, healthcare and aviation.
It spins off its health division, GE
HealthCare, in 2023, followed by GE
Aerospace and its energy unit GE
Vernova in April 2024.
2021 IBM IBM spins off a large chunk of its
company - the managed and
infrastructure business - as
Kyndryl in November, as the
century-old tech company sheds its
slow-growing business to focus on its
high-margin cloud and artificial
intelligence businesses.
2020 United In March, United Technologies
Technologies Corp approves the spinoffs of Carrier
Global Corporation and Otis Worldwide
Corporation.
2019 DuPont DowDuPont Inc spins off its materials
science division Dow Inc in April and
agriscience company Corteva in June -
part of its split into three
companies.
2016 Honeywell In September, Honeywell International
International Inc, a U.S. manufacturer of aerospace
parts and climate control
systems, approves the spinoff of its
$1.3 billion resins and chemicals
operations into a standalone company,
AdvanSix Inc.
2015 Hewlett In November, Hewlett-Packard splits
Packard Co into two listed companies: Hewlett
Packard Enterprise, comprising its
corporate hardware and service
business, and Hewlett-Packard,
renamed HP Inc, consisting of its
computers and printers business.
2015 Ebay Inc In June, e-commerce firm eBay
approves the spinoff of PayPal.
1984 AT&T Inc The U.S. government files an
antitrust lawsuit against AT&T Corp
in 1974 because of its monopoly over
telephone lines. After eight years of
litigation, the two sides reach a
settlement and AT&T gives up
control of its regional operating
companies, Baby Bells.
(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava, Deborah Sophia, Kannaki Deka, Neil J Kanatt in Bengaluru and Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Anil D'Silva, Sriraj Kalluvila, Arun Koyyur, Pooja Desai and Shailesh Kuber)
