AT&T-owned WarnerMedia has sold TMZ entertainment platform and its media properties to Fox Corp-owned Fox Entertainment.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
AT&T is in the process of selling its media business to focus on its original business of providing phone and internet services.
AT&T is combining WarnerMedia’s media assets with Discovery to create a stand-alone company, Warner Bros. Discovery, in a deal expected to close next year.
Last December, AT&T agreed to sell its Crunchyroll anime business to Sony’s Funimation Global Group LLC, in a $1.18 billion deal.
Fox Entertainment – along with Fox News Media, Fox Sports and Fox Television Stations – is part of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp (FOXA.O).
As part of the deal, Fox will own all TMZ-branded media properties, including the syndicated TV shows “TMZ” and “TMZ Live,” both of which air on network affiliates owned by Fox Television Stations; the sports site TMZ Sports and program “TMZ Sports,” celebrity and culture website TooFab.com and TMZ.com, and celebrity tour operations in Los Angeles and New York.
TMZ founder and Managing Editor Harvey Levin will remain with TMZ and continue to oversee day-to-day operations for the brand. He will report to Rob Wade, Fox Entertainment’s president of Alternative Entertainment and Specials.
