The outside of the Warner Bros. Discovery Atlanta campus is pictured after the Writers Guild of America began its strike against the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 2, 2023.
Alyssa Pointer | Reuters
Two Warner Bros. Discovery directors, Steven Miron and Steven Newhouse, are resigning following a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into a possible antitrust violation, in accordance with a company release Monday.
The corporate said Miron and Newhouse, who were each appointed as directors in April 2022 as a part of the WarnerMedia and Discovery merger, were being investigated as as to if their participation on the board was in violation of Section 8 of the Clayton Antitrust Act, which largely prohibits the identical directors or corporations from serving concurrently on the boards of competitors.
Miron is the CEO of privately held media company Advance/Newhouse Partnership and a senior executive officer at Advance, which invests in media and technology corporations, in accordance with the discharge. Newhouse is co-president of Advance.
Each of their terms on the Warner Bros. board were set to run out in 2025.
Reasonably than contesting the DOJ matter, the corporate said each Miron and Newhouse voluntarily elected to resign from their positions, effective immediately. Neither director admitted any violation.
“We’re proud to have played a job within the constructing of this great company and remain a big stockholder. We’re disillusioned to go away the Board, but want to do the proper thing for WBD,” Newhouse said in an announcement.
In a Monday evening statement, the DOJ said the conflicting company is Charter, a Connecticut-based media company which, just like Warner Bros.’ streaming platform Max, provides video distribution services. In accordance with the DOJ, Advance representatives held seats on each Warner Bros.’ board and Charter’s board.
“Today’s announcement is a win for consumers,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Kades of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said in an announcement. “In enacting Section 8 of the Clayton Act, Congress was concerned that competitors who shared directors would compete less vigorously to offer higher services and lower prices. We’ll proceed to vigorously implement the antitrust laws when essential to handle overreach by corporations and their designated agents.”