Warner Brothers Discovery agree to Paramount acquisition

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's Shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. Warner Brothers Discovery shareholders say yes to a $100 billion deal with Paramount. This is World Business Express from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach. Also today, why Samsung employees in South Korea are threatening to go on strike, and why businesses in China are feeling a cold chill from the war with Iran. Let's start, though, with Warner Brothers Discovery. Mr. Potter, I think we can expect great things from you. In the last hour, shareholders approved the company's $100 billion acquisition by Paramount. They fought off Netflix to get to this point, but now a new battle begins with the regulators. Meg James is the senior entertainment industry writer for the Los Angeles Times and is watching the meeting. I asked her how he got here. This huge deal started when David Ellison, the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, made his interest in Warner Brothers' discovery known. And that led to a very spirited bidding war, which at first appeared that Netflix was going to win. But the Ellisons were very persistent. And here we are today with the Ellison family and Paramount poised to capture their long sought after prize. Let's talk about the job losses that might result and how people in Hollywood are feeling about it. pretty lousy. There are protests ongoing in New York today to try to raise awareness that they, that Hollywood film workers and just cultural aficionados feel that this deal would be devastating for creativity, for Hollywood jobs. There was a letter that's been signed by more than 4,000 people who work in Hollywood, including some very prominent names like Ben Stiller and Kevin Bacon. And people resoundedly feel like this merger is not going to help the community, that it's going to lead to fewer jobs and fewer television programs, and potentially a degradation of news quality. And what about the battle that begins now with regulators How is that going to play out After the shareholders vote today all attention will turn to the regulators Because of President Trump strong support for the deal not too many people are expecting pushback with US regulators. Really, we're looking across the pond to the EU to see whether or not regulators will take a more sceptical view of the value of this merger. This is an industry that's already seen several mergers over the last, I would say, decade. And the results have been quite mixed to poor. Mixed to poor in what way? Think about Warner Brothers Discovery. This company will have changed three times in a decade. The original Time Warner was sold to phone giant AT&T. They had a really difficult time managing it, which is why they turned around in 2022 and sold the company to Little Discovery. And one of the reasons why Discovery has been so challenged managing the larger Warner Brothers is because of the deal debt that it took on. It was more than $43 billion. And so for the last four years, there's been cuts, cuts, cuts. And the problem with this merger is that there'll be almost twice the amount of debt. The company will start with $79 billion in debt because of this huge merger. That was Meg James, senior entertainment industry writer for the LA Times. Now what you're hearing there is thousands of employees of Samsung in South Korea who've been protesting, calling for higher pay and bonuses. Members of three different unions have been protesting outside one of the company's major plants just south of Seoul. They want a 7% wage increase and for 15% of Samsung's profits to be allocated for staff bonuses. The company says it's continuing to work towards a settlement. Let's bring you the latest from the Middle East now on the war between the US and Israel and Iran. Today, US forces have boarded a ship carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean. This as the Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament says Iran has received the first tolls from shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. He didn't say who had paid them or how much they'd paid and the BBC can't verify those claims. Live to Anna MacDonald, Investment Strategy Director at Hargreaves Lansdowne. Thanks for being with us, Anna. Oil, I see, is back over $100 a barrel today. Yes, oil is up for the fourth straight session, as uncertainty around any kind of resolution in the Middle East crisis rumbles on. Now, if we look at the price of a barrel of Brent to be delivered this time next year, that's at $79. So that's still higher than when the crisis started. But it shows two things. The market does expect an eventual end to the blockade in the Straits of Hormuz. but there is a risk that it does take a while to get supplies back on stream. A couple of weeks ago there was a lot of concern about petrol prices in various countries There now a lot of talk about jet fuel prices and availability with the holiday season coming up Yes absolutely Particularly European airlines hadn seen much of an effect on pricing yet because they are broadly hedged. But these hedges are rolling off and they need more jet fuel. So the refineries are running at full pelt to try and produce that and they are getting very high prices for it. And Europe also is having to import jet fuel and change where it gets it from. So importing from North America and Africa rather than the Middle East. Anna MacDonald from Hargreaves Lansdowne. Thank you very much. Let's take a look now at how the war is affecting China. It's been increasing costs in factories there. Traders say they'll have to pass those cost increases onto consumers. But China does have significant And oil reserves of its own and its drive towards greener energies has helped to insulate it from the energy crisis. This from our correspondent, Laura Bicker. In the back streets of China's manufacturing heartland, it is clear why Beijing is pushing so hard for a ceasefire in Iran. We've come to an area that is the world's largest textile supplier. There are rolls of fabric being transported all around me, onto the backs of carts, onto motorbikes, onto lorries, all to be shipped around the world. But there's a problem. The price of this fabric has gone up, in some cases, by 20%. Why? Because it needs oil to make these fabrics in the form of petrochemicals. Just off the street, in an office filled with cigarette smoke, four local suppliers pour tea into small porcelain cups. They fear they'll have to absorb the extra costs, as clients won't pay higher prices. Overall, the number of orders will likely decrease. As the higher the price, the fewer the orders. On the other side of town, in the cavernous exhibition halls of the Canton Fair, this city is welcoming buyers from all over the world. Chinese traders show off new gadgets, from vacuum cleaners to shiny new espresso machines. This event has long been a barometer for global trade, and this year it's reflecting a world shaped by conflict. Under bright spotlights and an advertisement written in both English and Arabic is one of China's biggest exports, electric vehicles. How are you? I'm fine, how are you? Good, good. Why are you here at the Canton Fair? We are a delegation from Oman Chamber to visit the Canton Fair to cooperate with the Chinese company. How does the war in the Middle East complicate things for you? It hard but inshallah I hope that it finished the business is growing more I think so We have factory Okay Yeah so later We can make assembly factory in a moment Yeah, we have... Zaheer Al-Khabi spends around 30 minutes negotiating the best price with Alyssa Yanshan. Are your shipments able to get through right now? That's a big challenge for me. Everyone now is waiting to hope the war will finish soon. Trader Vera Chen is looking for opportunity amidst all the uncertainty. We're still having so many customers from every single other country that are looking for electric cars and very hope we can just sell them as soon as possible and the demand of electric cars is raising up. It's hard to comprehend the scale of this Canton Fair. There's a whole floor full of robots, robots dancing, robots waving. This is a China trying to welcome the world and look to the future. But traders here in Guangzhou and right across the country will be concerned about the fallout from this war and whether it will cause a global recession and affect their ability to sell goods abroad. But within this crisis, some may see an opportunity for President Xi Jinping. But he's a very tough negotiator. that's not good. President Xi is a great leader of a great country and I think we're going to have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time. Donald Trump will try to negotiate a new trade deal with Mr Xi when he visits Beijing next month. China has been cautious in its criticisms of US actions in the Middle East. Online however China has not been so diplomatic. This AI cartoon, which depicts a warmongering eagle fighting a Persian cat, has been circulating on Chinese social media, a not-so-subtle dig at the Trump administration. This is an outlet of frustration at a distant conflict that's reshaping trade in this nation, which is both at the centre of the global economy and increasingly at the centre of global power. that report from Laura Bicker in Beijing and you can read more from Laura at bbc.com slash news that's it from World Business Express though do subscribe to get all the latest business news by searching for World Business Express wherever you get your BBC podcasts from me Andrew Peach and the team thank you for being with us Thank you.