WarnerMedia and Discovery’s merger is spurring M&A chatter

Hi and welcome to Insider Advertising for May 20. I'm senior advertising reporter Lauren Johnson, and here's what's going on:

• Media M&A chatter.
• Lachlan Murdoch's future at Fox.
• Coca-Cola's fumbles with non-soda brands.

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Tips, comments, suggestions? Drop me a line at [email protected] or on Twitter at @LaurenJohnson.

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WarnerMedia and Discovery's merger is reigniting media M&A chatter. These are the potential deals that could rock the industry this year.

• Discovery and WarnerMedia's merger has reignited speculation of industry-shaking media deals, Claire Atkinson and Ashley Rodriguez reported.
• Insider spoke with experts about how talks between media giants could play out in 2021.
• The pressure is on, and all eyes are on Comcast's NBCUniversal as rival AT&T spins WarnerMedia.

Read the story.

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2 years after being named CEO of Fox, Lachlan Murdoch is pulling all-nighters to prove he is a worthy successor of his father

• Lachlan Murdoch has been running Fox Corp. during a tumultuous news cycle and business transition, Claire reports.
• The CEO is showing he's running things, despite working from Australia since March.
• In a rare interview, he also addressed questions about the company's future and his place in it.

Read the story.

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Coca-Cola's experiment to acquire and build out its non-soda offerings killed more brands than it launched. Now it's gone from a staff of hundreds to just a few people as the new CEO winds it down.

• Coca-Cola has sold off drink brands that it paid millions for, like Zico and Odwalla, Alex Bitter reported.
• Former employees said Coca-Cola and its venture arm didn't give the brands the resources they needed to succeed.
• James Quincey, Coca-Cola's CEO, has signaled that the company will take fewer bets on small brands.

Read the story.

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Other stories we're reading:

• How a digital marketer launched a management firm focused on diverse talent and signed 20 influencers in her first year (Insider)
• A day in the life of a 28-year-old ad agency staffer who gets paid to spend up to 40 hours a week playing video games (Insider)
• A TikTok creator who posts tips on how to apply to college breaks down how he has grown his account to 880,000 followers and is attracting brand deals (Insider)
  
• AT&T-Warner deal puts some Discovery insiders ahead from the start (Wall Street Journal)

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow! You can reach me in the meantime at [email protected] and subscribe to this daily email here.