During the 1980s, nearly all the Hollywood majors became subsidiary divisions within giant corporations seeking to diversify their investments. While some film studios remained untouched by this emerging corporate pattern, a new burst of takeovers and buyouts in the mid- to late 1980s saw the remaining studios acquired, often by non-US buyers. In 1985, the News Corporation, owned by Australian publisher Rupert Murdoch, purchased Twentieth-Century Fox; in 1989, the Japanese electronics company Sony bought Columbia Pictures from Coca-Cola; and in 1990, Universal was acquired by Japan's Matsushita Electronic Industrial Company. Only Disney remained autonomous in corporate terms. Amidst this business activity was an emerging picture of consolidation in media industries. Gradually getting rid of non-film and media interests, conglomerates began to streamline their operations and consolidate their power around the core business of entertainment and communications.

One of the most significant examples of media conglomeration came in 1989 when the publishing company Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications Inc. in a $14 billion deal. Followed by subsequent mergers with Turner Broadcasting in 1996 and America Online in 2000, the market worth of the conglomerate had reached $96 billion by the start of 2000. It had combined stakes in publishing, cable, music, film, video, television, the Internet, professional sports teams, retail outlets, studios, cinemas and theme parks. Linking old media and new media, Time Warner was committed to the creative synergy of its multi-media investments and to ever-deepening global market expansion.