How a missed golf tournament led to the merger of Discovery, WarnerMedia

It all started with two friends commiserating.

Discovery Inc CEO David Zaslav emailed his counterpart at AT&T Inc, John Stankey, on a Sunday afternoon in February to lament how the COVID-19 pandemic had led to them missing the AT&T Pebble Beach golf tournament in California, where the two friends had planned to meet.

After reading Zaslav’s email, which included emojis of a person playing golf and another one with sunglasses, Stankey got on the phone, and the pair spoke for two hours.