What if Warner Communications & MGM/UA Entertainment merged into one company in 1986?

On August 7, 1985, Turner Broadcasting System offered to buy MGM/UA. As film licensing to television became more complicated, Ted Turner saw the value of acquiring MGM's film library for his Superstation WTBS. On March 25, 1986, the deal was finalized in a cash-stock deal for $1.5 billion, and the company was renamed "MGM Entertainment Co.". Turner immediately sold MGM's United Artists subsidiary back to Kerkorian for roughly $480 million. But since they were quite unable to find financing for the rest of the deal, and because of these concerns in the financial community over the debt-load of his companies on August 26, 1986, Turner was forced to sell MGM's production and distribution assets to United Artists for $300 million. The MGM studio lot and lab facilities were sold to Lorimar-Telepictures. Turner kept the pre-May 1986 library of MGM films, along with the RKO Radio Pictures and pre-1950 Warner Bros. films which United Artists had previously purchased.

How much of MGM's back catalog Turner actually obtained was a point of conflict for a time; eventually, it was determined that Turner owned all of the pre-May 1986 MGM library, as well as the pre-1950 Warner Bros. catalog, the Popeye cartoons released by Paramount (both the pre-1950 WB library and Popeye cartoons were sold to Associated Artists Productions, which was later bought by United Artists), and the US/Canadian rights to the RKO library, in addition to MGM's television series. Turner began broadcasting MGM films through his Turner Network Television.

But in our alternate history, we imagine if Warner Communications & MGM/UA Entertainment merged into one company instead of Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting System purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from Kirk Kerkorian for $1.5 billion, and renamed it MGM Entertainment Company, Inc. in 1986?

List of Changes

 * The merger completed in March 25, 1986
 * The combined company will be called Warner-MGM/UA Communications Co.
 * Turner Entertainment would not exist, Comcast Holdings and Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. would merge into one company, known as TurnerComcast Entertainment
 * Warner-Elektra-Atlantic would change it's name to Warner-MGM/UA Records.
 * MGM Grand Hotel and Casino would become Warner-MGM/UA Grand Hotel and Casino, which would not have been sold by Bally Manufacturing and renamed Bally's Las Vegas.
 * Warner-MGM/UA Communications Co. would buy Lorimar-Telepictures On January 11, 1989.
 * Warner-MGM/UA Communications Co. would buy Home Box Office, Inc. from Time Inc. (Acquired by Paramount Communications) on January 10, 1990
 * Warner-MGM/UA Communications Co. would buy Hanna-Barbera Productions and most of the pre-1991 Ruby-Spears Productions library from Great American Broadcasting for $320 million on October 29, 1991.
 * HBO would launch Cartoon Network on October 1, 1992.
 * Warner-MGM/UA Communications Co. would buy Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema (as an arthouse unit) for over $650 million on August 17, 1993. (which in this alternate story Turner Entertainment would not have bought)
 * Warner-MGM/UA Communications Co. would buy Metromedia's film subsidiaries (Orion Pictures, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, and the Motion Picture Corporation of America) for US$573 million On April 11, 1997. (Orion Pictures would became genre unit, while Orion Classics would become an arthouse/indie unit.)
 * MGM did not file for bankruptcy in 2005 because Warner-MGM/UA was very wealthy and was the 2nd largest film studio in the United States.
 * Many MGM films would not have been canceled. For example, Betty Boop was released in 1994, while Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World came out in 1997.
 * Warner-MGM/UA Communications Co. would buy Classic Media (which in this alternate story Dreamworks Animation would not have bought) On July 23, 2012.
 * Amazon would compete to buy Warner-MGM/UA Communications Co. (as the division) on May 17, 2021.