Editing WarnerMedia (section)

==== Financial issues and corporate transition ====
By the mid to late 1980s, Warner began to face financial difficulties. From 1976 to 1984, Warner Communications owned [[Atari, Inc.]], but suffered substantial losses due to the [[video game crash of 1983]], and spun them off in 1984.<ref name="nytimes warner sells">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/03/business/warner-sells-atari-to-tramiel.html|title=Warner Sells Atari to Tramiel|author=David E. Sanger|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=July 3, 1984|access-date=November 2, 2023|archive-date=October 2, 2021|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211002231020/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/03/business/warner-sells-atari-to-tramiel.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Taking advantage of Warner Communications' financial situation, [[Time Inc.]] announced on March 4, 1989, that the two companies were to merge.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/05/us/time-inc-and-warner-to-merge-creating-largest-media-company.html|title=Time Inc. and Warner to Merge, Creating Largest Media Company|last=Norris|first=Floyd|date=March 5, 1989|work=The New York Times|access-date=March 18, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=September 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200901012649/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/05/us/time-inc-and-warner-to-merge-creating-largest-media-company.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the summer of 1989, [[Paramount Communications]] (then [[Gulf+Western]]) launched a $12.2 billion [[hostile bid]] to acquire Time Inc. in an attempt to end a stock-swap merger deal between Time Inc. and Warner Communications.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|date=October 31, 1989|title=P. M. Briefing : 2 Simon & Schuster Units Sold|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-31-fi-360-story.html|access-date=October 26, 2021|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|archive-date=October 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026160239/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-31-fi-360-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Time Inc. raised its bid to $14.9 billion in cash and stock. Paramount responded by filing a lawsuit in a Delaware court to block the Time Warner merger. The court ruled twice in favor of Time Inc., forcing Paramount to drop both the Time Inc. acquisition and the lawsuit, and allowing the two companies to merge, which was completed on January 10, 1990.<ref>{{Cite web |title=URGENT Delaware Court Rules In Favor Of Time-Warner Merger |url=https://apnews.com/article/377d1dd274bb79706a2a764581daa167 |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=AP NEWS |language=en |archive-date=2022-05-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505164557/https://apnews.com/article/377d1dd274bb79706a2a764581daa167 |url-status=live }}</ref>