AT&T CEO John Sankey spoke at a J.P. Morgan conference on Monday. During his speech, he discussed the company's decision to sell off it's entertainment assets to Discovery.

The merger will combine a variety of content mediums including Bleacher Report, CNN, Discovery, Eurosport, GolfTV, HBO, HBO MAX, Discovery, TNT, and TBS with a market value in the Dr. Evil ransom range of approximately $130 billion, per Front Office Sports. The brands have a robust value, including league contracts with the MLB, NHL, NBA, and PGA Tour.

Sankey was not coy about the reason AT&T made the move. He noted that the deal alleviates "concerns about the balance sheet." AT&T, while profitable on the whole, has struggled to find a way to make WarnerMedia a major source of revenue generation since taking over the properties in 2019.

"The new company will have a content spend that exceeds most of its industry peers," Stankey said of the company's $20 billion expected to be spent on content. "It's time to unleash the media assets to go and seize a multi-hundred-billion-dollar opportunity."