Warner Bros. Discovery open for sale after failed Paramount takeover bids • FRANCE 24 English

Straight to business now. Shelligrant is with us. He’s going to start with a potential sale that could shake up the American entertainment industry. SH entertainment giant Warner Brothers Discovery has said it is exploring a potential sale of all or some of its media holdings. And this includes uh the Warner Brothers movie studio and its lucrative franchises like Harry Potter, uh DC Comics, Game of Thrones or uh Lord of the Rings as well as streaming platforms like HBO Max and Discovery Plus company also includes famous US cable networks like the Discovery Channel, TNT and TBS, as well as news channel CNN. You can see them all there. The news has led to Warner Brothers Discovery stock surging on Wall Street, closing over 10% higher uh on Tuesday. This comes, doesn’t it, Sean? the two failed attempts to take over the entertainment giant. Paramount Sky Dance uh had now headed by David Ellison uh for sorry two attempts by fellow media company Paramount Sky Dance uh which is looking to absorb its larger competitors 126 million streaming subscribers and and higher revenues. Paramount Skynance now headed by David Ellison for about three months. Uh Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle and a billionaire friend of Donald Trump. Uh bringing Warner Brothers Discovery under their umbrella would have meant CNN coming under their uh the ownership of uh MAGA leaning people potentially affecting uh the news channel’s editorial line. So by announcing it is exploring a potential sale of all or some of its business. Warner Brothers Discovery and its CEO David Zazlav are opening up the field to the competition with potential interest from names like Amazon, Netflix, Apple or Comcast. In the meantime, the group has said it is continuing its plans to split the company in two by 2026 with its movie studio and streaming services in one unit and its cable and TV operations in another. Let’s move to some other news now. Chat GPT I can’t even say it. Chat GPT baker Open AAI is releasing a new web browser. Yeah, imagine not knowing what these things are yet. The world, it’s very confusing. The world’s most valuable startup, OpenAI, looking to rival Google’s Chrome with a new artificial intelligence powered browser called Chat GPT Atlas released on Tuesday on Apple’s Mac OS operating system. This is part of OpenAI’s strategy to try and capitalize on its growing number of users, which has now reached 800 million people on a weekly basis. This also comes as a growing number of internet users are now turning to large language models like Chad GPT as their search engines thereby denting Google’s dominance markets. I can say that. Yeah. Well, in Europe this morning, the majores are trading in mixed territory. The prospect of a peace deal in Ukraine dimming as Donald Trump has put a meeting with Putin and Hungary on hold. You can see uh the Footsie in London up almost half a percent higher while the D the DAX in Frankfurt and the Paris Kalum are trading lower. Gold prices also falling uh from their unprecedented highs. Uh this is China and US trade talks appear to be in slightly better shape than they were just a few days or weeks ago with Donald Trump expressing optimism about his upcoming talks with Xinping. Gold per ounce as you can see there around the $4,00 mark. Going to take you to Brazil. Next step, plans to drill for oil at the mouth of the Amazon River, has environmentalists, climate campaigners as well crying foul. The Brazilian government this week approved exploratory drilling in the Equatorial Margin Basin, an offshore area believed to have large deposits of oil and gas. State-run oil giant Petror says it’s taken strong measures to prevent environmental damage, but conservationists say it’s too close to the delicate Amazon ecosystem. The move is also casting a shadow over Brazil’s hosting of the UN’s upcoming COP 30 climate conference. Brian Quinn has a story. Off the coast of northern Brazil lies what could be one of the country’s most productive and lucrative deposits of oil and gas. The Brazilian government has just authorized state-run oil firm Petro Brass to begin exploratory drilling in the Fosdo Amazonas, the mouth of the Amazon River. The country’s energy minister hailing what he calls a defense of Brazil’s future energy sovereignty. This exploration will take place with complete environmental responsibility within the highest international standards and with concrete benefits for Brazilians. But given the offshore fields proximity to the lifeblood of the Amazon rainforest with strong currents flowing in and out, environmentalists and indigenous groups say any spill would risk catastrophic environmental damage to one of the world’s most biodiverse regions. President Lula Dilva has described himself as the Amazon’s greatest defender. He says oil revenues are necessary to fund Brazil’s green energy transition. Climate campaigners call that a misguided strategy. There’s no such thing as sustainable oil exploration. I think that’s the first point we need to acknowledge. And in this region specifically, the Amazon River mouth basin, we’re talking about a highly complex and fragile environmental setting. Okay. The approval comes as Brazil is gearing up to host the UN’s COP 30 climate conference in November in BM just 160 kilometers from the drilling site. The International Energy Agency says that no new oil project should be approved if the world is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Petro Brass meanwhile says its exploratory drilling is set to begin right away. Brian Queen reporting there. Thanks very much SH with the business

US entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery has said it is exploring a potential sale of all or some of its media assets, this after it turned down a second takeover bid by rival Paramount Skydance and its CEO David Ellison. The company, which houses such properties as Warner Bros. Studio, CNN and HBO Max, saw its shares surge on Tuesday. Also in this edition: Brazil allows state oil giant Petrobras to explore an oil site at the mouth of the Amazon River, in spite of environmental concerns.
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