The Warner Bros. water tower is seen at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif., Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)2025-12-08T21:06:44Z NEW YORK (AP) Warner Bros. Discoverys friendly agreement to sell itself to Netflix just got upended by a hostile actor -- Paramount, which made Warner shareholders a higher offer and touched off what is likely to be a lengthy fight in the latest episode of media industry consolidation.The bid comes after Warner last week agreed to be bought by Netflix for $72 billion.The competing offers set the stage for combining some of the most beloved entertainment properties. Netflixs vast library includes Stranger Things and Squid Game, while the much smaller Paramount owns its Hollywood studio and major TV networks like CBS and MTV. Both covet Warner, which owns Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO and the Harry Potter franchise.Whichever media company, if any, ultimately secures (Warner), controls the calculus of the streaming wars and so much more, said Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at research firm Forrester. Both offers will face regulatory scrutiny, an issue President Donald Trump has already weighed in on. Heres what to know about the three players and what the bids mean for the entertainment industry. A look at the offersCEO David Zaslav has been seeking offers for Warner Bros. Discovery since at least October, when he said the company might be open to selling all or parts of its business.Paramount said Monday it had submitted six proposals to Warner over a 12 week period before its offer was rejected in favor of Netflix.So Paramount decided to go straight to Warner shareholders with a bid worth about $74.4 billion, or $30 per share in cash. Paramount, unlike Netflix, is also offering to buy the cable assets of Warner, and asking shareholders of the company to reject the Netflix bid.Paramount CEO Larry Ellison said the offer is worth about $18 billion more in cash than the competing cash-and-stock bid from Netflix. The Paramount deal includes help from investors such as Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner and funds controlled by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to a regulatory filing. Netflix is offering a combination of cash and stock valued at $27.75 per Warner share. Its offer values Warner at $72 billion, excluding debt, but it is not bidding on Warner-owned networks such as CNN and Discovery.Before Paramounts bid, the Netflix deal was expected to close in the next 12 to 18 months, after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations. Competing bids makes an eventual deal more likely Matthew Dolgin, senior equity analyst at research firm Morningstar, said there are still many unknowns, including whether Netflix will now sweeten its bid.But, he said, a competing offer makes it more likely that Warner will eventually be acquired.With Paramount now also being involved formally with an offer to shareholders, its even more likely to us that Warner gets acquired, because its no longer a single decision that may or may not hinge on regulatory approval, he said.Shareholders have until Jan. 8, 2026, to vote on Paramounts tender offer. Donald Trump weighed in earlierAnother wild card could be President Trump. He already weighed in on Sunday, saying the deal struck by Netflix to buy Warner could be a problem because of the size of the combined market share.The Republican president said he will be involved in the decision about whether the federal government should approve the deal.Paramounts CEO is the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, an ally of Trump. Federal regulators under Trump approved Paramounts $8 billion merger with Skydance in July.Regulatory scrutiny awaits either dealOn the Netflix offer, state or federal regulators could be most concerned about the massive size of a combined Netflix and Warner subscription service, said Morningstars Dolgin. Netflix is already the worlds largest streaming service.Thats less of a concern with the Paramount deal, because its streaming service is smaller and has less of an international footprint than Netflix. But regulators may raise red flags over the combination of the Paramount and Warner film and television studios, because relatively few of those remain, Dolgin said. A pattern of media acquisitionsAs the streaming landscape has matured, more media companies are seeking growth through acquisitions. Warner Bros. Discovery itself was created in 2022 when U.S. telecom giant AT&T Inc. spun off and then combined its WarnerMedia operations with Discovery Inc.In 2021, Amazon said it would buy MGM, the movie and TV studio behind James Bond, Legally Blonde and Shark Tank. Disney bought Foxs entertainment service in 2019.Technology always faces this pattern of startups, lots of different players, legacy companies getting in on the action, and then ultimately lots of consolidation, said Forresters Proulx. And this is the state that were in right now in the streaming wars saga, and in 2026 well see continued consolidation. MAE ANDERSON Anderson reports for The Associated Press on a wide range of issues that small businesses face. She is based in New York. twitter mailto