he was preparing a break-up of the business<\/a>, which would split its streaming operations from its traditional cable networks. <\/p>\nAnalysts say the company’s rich library, stocked with franchises that include Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Looney Tunes, makes it attractive for firms looking to bulk up their online streaming catalogues. <\/p>\n
But the appeal of the cable networks is less obvious. <\/p>\n
Warner Brothers Discovery board chairman Samuel Dipiazza said the company still believed in the merits of its plan to split the assets but would now review other options, including sale of all or parts of the business. <\/p>\n
The company said there was no set timeline to complete its review and the unsolicited offers had concerned both the entire company and Warner Brothers itself.<\/p>\n
The reported interest of Paramount Skydance, only weeks after it completed its own merger, has drawn particular attention, signalling the ambitions of boss David Ellison, son of Oracle boss Larry Ellison. <\/p>\n
A potential sale could face government review of competition and anti-trust implications.<\/p>\n
Analysts believe the Paramount bid stood a strong chance of approval, citing the Trump administration’s relatively hands-off approach to mergers.<\/p>\n
They also highlighted the Ellison family’s apparent close ties to President Donald Trump, noting that his administration had blessed deals involving their companies, including Skydance’s takeover of Paramount.<\/p>\n
“They got on Trump’s good side to get the Paramount deal closed so there’s still some of that good will that they could use,” Brent Penter, associate analyst at Raymond James said, shortly after Ellison’s interest was reported. Of other potential buyers, he added: “Not everyone has that good will.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The media industry has been rapidly consolidating, as it responds to pressures from the rise of streaming and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-216156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}