- AOL Time Warner began as the Kinney National Company. In 1972, Kinney faced a financial scandal regarding its parking sector operations. In response, it sold its assets that were not geared towards entertainment and renamed itself simply Warner Communications. It consolidated its numerous operations including Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Music Group, DC Comics and Mad Magazine. In 1976, the company acquired Atari. This would prove to be highly beneficial over the next few years as the Atari 2600 game module became one of the fastest-selling computerized devices of the era. During the 1980s, it expanded into cable networks like MTV and Nickelodeon. However, it sold these holdings to Viacom in 1984.
- During the 1980s, Warner Communications went through a number of purchases and divestments. It bought and sold the Franklin Mint and Pittsburgh Pirates during the early part of the decade. The company also sold off its shares of Atari in 1984 following a large crash in the video game market the previous year. One of the major purchases of the era was Lorimar-Telepictures, a media company that held the rights to a number of television shows and stations across the nation. This was followed by an attempt to merge with Time Inc. The challenge for Warner was rival company Paramount Communications. Paramount made an attempt to purchase Time for $12.2 billion in response to the stock-swap merger between Warner and Time. Time responded by raising its bid by $14.9 billion. Paramount attempted to respond in court, but lost both cases, resulting in Time and Warner completing its merger in early 1990.
- Time Warner moved forward in the early 1990s by consolidating its various divisions and operating companies. It took its place as one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. In 1994, it re-acquired Atari and named it Time Warner Interactive, however, sold it again in 1996 to Midway Games. That same year, Time Warner made one of its largest purchases ever. The Turner Broadcasting System was bought from Ted Turner. This meant that the company garnered a major presence in the cable industry as well as acquiring the classic film library of Warner Bros from Turner. During the late 1990s, Time Warner was forced to sell its Six Flags Theme Parks chain as the company neared bankruptcy.
- In one of the largest mergers in American history, AOL purchased Time Warner for $164 billion in January 2000. It was cleared by the Federal Trade Commission later in the year, making AOL Time Warner the third largest media company in the world. This merger is considered a major failure by many analysts as the AOL portion of the company began to experience major stock drops in 2002. The company reported a loss that year of $99 billion, the largest loss ever of a company at the time.
- In early 2006, CBS and AOL Time Warner launched a new broadcasting network entitled CW Television. This was a merger of the WB Television Network and UPN. A few years later, the company decided to attempt a re-branding procedure in which the AOL portion of the name would be removed from the larger entity. The name Time Warner was now the official title of the corporation. Despite the name change, the company continued to report large-scale losses throughout the decade. This came at the same time as on overall economic downturn in the American and worldwide markets.
