Paramount and Netflix both want to buy Warner Bros, a famous Hollywood company. Warner Bros owns many well-known films and series, like The Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones. These stories are part of a big “cultural library” that people all over the world know.
Last week, Netflix made a $72 billion offer to buy Warner Bros. Many people thought the deal was almost done. Some experts are worried, because if Netflix becomes even bigger, we may see fewer cinema films and more TV series made only for streaming. They also fear job cuts and higher prices for subscriptions.
Now Paramount has made a new, hostile offer of $108 billion. This started a big fight between the two media giants. The situation is more complicated because US President Donald Trump is talking about the deal. Normally, a president does not get directly involved in business mergers. But this time, Trump has strong personal and political links to people in Paramount and in the private equity firm that supports the offer.
In today’s America, being close to the president may decide who wins control of Warner Bros’ powerful media empire.
Vocabulary :
• hostile (adj): very unfriendly; trying to attack or oppose
• bid (noun): an offer of money to buy something important, like a company
• takeover (noun): when one company buys another company and takes control
• streaming (noun): watching films or series on the internet without downloading them
• giant (noun): a very big and powerful company
• iconic (adj): very famous and easy to recognize
• franchise (noun): a group of films or series about the same characters or story world
• rights (noun): legal control to use or show a film, series, or book
• media (noun): TV, radio, newspapers, and online platforms that share information
• advent (noun): the arrival or start of something important
• bingeable (adj): so interesting you want to watch many episodes in a row
• redundancies (noun): when companies remove jobs and people lose their work
• subscription (noun): regular payment (every month or year) to use a service
• market share (noun): the percentage of all sales that one company has
• administration (noun): the current government of a country, especially the US president and team
• merger (noun): when two companies join together to make one company
• acquisitions (noun): acts of buying other companies
• private equity firm (noun): a company that invests a lot of money in other businesses
• backing (noun): financial or public support for an idea or plan
• interview (noun): a formal conversation on TV, radio, or in a newspaper
• landscape (noun): the general situation or environment in one area, like media or politics
• archive (noun): a large, organized collection of old documents, films or records