Mumbai: Discovery Inc has received unconditional clearance from the European Commission to move ahead with its merger agreement with WarnerMedia and is on track to close the deal by second quarter 2022. The company filed a merger proxy earlier this month and has scheduled a stockholder meeting on 11 March.

“We, of course, are pleased to receive unconditional clearance from the European Commission, the expiration of the HSR waiting period, and clearance from other key international markets, and AT&T having received a favorable private letter ruling from the IRS,” said Discovery president and chief executive officer David Zaslav. “We also filed our merger proxy earlier this month and have scheduled our stockholder meeting for March 11th. Following the vote, and assuming the deal is approved by our stockholders, we expect to be on track to close in Q2.”

Discovery reported its fourth quarter results for the year 2021. The company posted revenue of $3.18 billion, an increase of 10 per cent to the prior year quarter. Its direct-to-consumer business added two million subscribers since the end of Q3 totalling to 22 million subscribers.

“2021 was by all measures an exceptional year for our company, in which we achieved significant operational, financial, and strategic objectives,” added Zaslav. “We grew our global DTC paying subscribers to 22 million, a tailwind for our strong distribution revenue growth of 11 per cent, while global advertising revenues grew 10 per cent due to continued strength in our key markets and share gains. Additionally, we ended the year with nearly $ four billion of cash on hand and generated robust cash flows, supporting our ability to invest in growth initiatives. Further, the successful recent broadcast of our second Winter Olympic Games across Europe, on the heels of our first broadcast of the Summer Olympic Games, underscores one of our key differentiators: in-language and locally relevant content. All of which position us well to take advantage of the remarkable opportunities ahead for Warner Bros. Discovery, which we believe will be among the world’s most dynamic media companies.”