AT&T Acquires Rest Of Otter Media To Fold Into New...

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AT&T Acquires Rest Of Otter Media To Fold Into New WarnerMedia

AT&T has acquired the remainder of The Chernin Group’s controlling stake in Otter Media, with the plan to fold the subscription, advertising and content company the two formed in 2014 into AT&T’s WarnerMedia, the new content company created after the telco giant’s acquisition of Time Warner.

Tony Goncalves, who was appointed Otter CEO this year, will continue to run the company. He will report to WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey. No financial terms of the deal were announced.

Otter Media’s holdings include Ellation, an online subscription video service provider, with offerings under the Crunchyroll and VRV brands; and Fullscreen, a full-service digital media company that includes its Rooster Teeth brand. Otter also has stakes in global content studio Gunpowder & Sky and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine.

“We are thrilled to incorporate the Otter Media brands and talent into WarnerMedia,” Stankey said. “Working with Tony, we look to harness Otter’s expertise in feeding the passion of online audiences to augment our portfolio of digital assets and help us further engage, connect and entertain consumers around the globe.”

Otter Media’s overall global audience now reaches more that 93 million unique monthly consumers and is on pace to deliver over 75 billion video views this year. It has more than 2 million paying SVOD subscribers.

“From the outset, Randall Stephenson and John Stankey championed the Otter strategy and vision, and AT&T has been an ideal partner in building the business — smart, creative and supportive,” said The Chernin Group CEO Peter Chernin. “With AT&T’s direct-to-consumer relationships, vast data and varied content, I believe they can accelerate Otter’s growth. The combination with WarnerMedia will create a new-era media company, serving customers with every type of content delivered through every possible distribution channel.”