COVID-19 pandemic with some cinema chains closing, precipitating box office flops (like Disney's Onward or Sony's Bloodshot). Several films were delayed (Universal and MGM's No Time to Die or Paramount's A Quiet Place Part II and even Disney's Black Widow and Mulan) and others were launched to the digital market (like Universal's The Invisible Man and Trolls World Tour and Warner Bros.' Birds of Prey, Scoob and Wonder Woman 1984). On May 16, 2021, it was reported that AT&T was in talks with Discovery, Inc. for it to merge with and acquire WarnerMedia, forming a publicly traded company that would be divided between its shareholders. The proposed spin-off and merger was officially announced the next day, which is to be structured as a Reverse Morris Trust. AT&T shareholders will receive a 71% stake in the merged company, which is expected to be led by Discovery's current CEO David Zaslav, with that, AT&T will leave the entertainment business. On the same day after the announcement of the acquisition/merger of WarnerMedia by Discovery, Amazon entered negotiations with MGM Holdings to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The negotiations were made directly with MGM board chairman Kevin Ulrich whose Anchorage Capital Group is a major shareholder. MGM already began to explore a potential sale of the studio since December 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the domination of streaming platforms due to the closure of movie theaters as contributing factors. On May 26, 2021, it was officially announced that MGM would be acquired by Amazon for $8.45 billion, subject to regulatory approvals and other routine closing conditions; with the studio continuing to operate as a label under Amazon's existing content arm, complementing Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime Video. On April 8, 2022, Discovery, Inc. completed its acquisition of WarnerMedia and was renamed Warner Bros. Discovery. The primary goal of the merger is to combine their respective streaming services into one (HBO Max, Discovery+) and to reach 400 million subscribers. Historical organizational lineage The eight Golden Age majors The eight major film studios of the Golden Age have gone through significant ownership changes ("independent" meaning customarily identified as the primary commercial entity in its corporate structure; "purchased" meaning acquired anything from majority to total ownership): This does not include Walt Disney Pictures (then Walt Disney Productions), which was primarily an animation studio at the time and the only studio owned by the same conglomerate since its founding. Universal