Disney Wins Bidding War to Buy 21st Century Fox; Acquisition Complete

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CNBC reports that 21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of its company to Disney, which would include the feature film and television divisions, meaning Star Wars: A New Hope would officially be owned by Lucasfilm/Disney. It would also mean that every major Marvel Comics property that Fox owns—including X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool—would potentially come under the Marvel Studios umbrella, opening the door to combine these various characters and universes with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This is very early and CNBC notes that at this very moment, the two companies aren’t talking. But apparently there’s been an on again/off again relationship with these negotiations, so they could resume at any minute. And indeed, this CNBC story feels like a leak intended to move the conversation along.

21st Century Fox’s management is under the belief that they can’t compete with the media scale of other studios, and that Disney has the scale necessary to take its film and television productions to new heights.

But 21st Century Fox wouldn’t sell all of its company. By offloading its media properties, the studio would keep a tight focus on news and sports. Since a company can’t own two broadcast networks, Fox would remain under the 21st Century Fox control/umbrella, as would the Fox sports programming as Disney believes joining forces between ESPN and Fox Sports could be seen as anti-competitive from an antitrust standpoint. The same reasoning relates to their decision not to buy Fox News or Fox Business, which would also remain with 21st Century Fox.

But Disney would own the movie studio, TV production and international assets, and networks such as FX and National Geographic. The movie implications are the largest here, at least from a consumer standpoint.

Source: Collider
 

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Damn I just see the news! Disney now have their hands in x men, avatar and Simpsons!
Mad
 
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Ugh.

:thumbs: for Fantastic Four, but (n) for X-Men. Disney's already announced the X-Men and Fantastic Four will be merged into the MCU.

No more X-Men films every year. Now they'll be once every few years. And mutants will probably be the result of a Hydra or Stark Industries experiment. And they'll all be goofy, jokey PG-rated kids. :dunno:

...there wouldn't even be an MCU without the success of the X-Men films (and Sony's Spider-Man).
 
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Ugh.

:thumbs: for Fantastic Four, but (n) for X-Men. Disney's already announced the X-Men and Fantastic Four will be merged into the MCU.

No more X-Men films every year. Now they'll be once every few years. And mutants will probably be the result of a Hydra or Stark Industries experiment. And they'll all be goofy, jokey PG-rated kids. :dunno:

...there wouldn't even be an MCU without the success of the X-Men films (and Sony's Spider-Man).

I 100% agree with this however they've lost their way since the Last Stand and the screwed up timelines, even when things looked like getting back on tracking with The Wolverine and that leading into Days of Future Past they then dropped the ball with X-Men Apocalypse and now the new Pheonix film doesn't look like it's going to be as good as it could either so Marvel getting the X-Men back is something I'm now really excited about
 
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I 100% agree with this however they've lost their way since the Last Stand and the screwed up timelines, even when things looked like getting back on tracking with The Wolverine and that leading into Days of Future Past they then dropped the ball with X-Men Apocalypse and now the new Pheonix film doesn't look like it's going to be as good as it could either so Marvel getting the X-Men back is something I'm now really excited about

See, while I agree that Apocalypse isn't one of the best, I think it was the most comic-book-feeling film in all of the X-Men films. I actually enjoyed the hell out of it and can't wait for Dark Phoenix. I just hope that it doesn't end with a cliffhanger since it'll probably be the last time we that cast and universe.
 
I don't think they are going to touch Deadpool. With it being such a huge hit, I think they even use him to bridge the gap between the MCU and the Fox owned properties. Its kind of its own separate thing anyways. Using Disney Meta jokes and things I think it could work well for it. Even if you want to put him in an MCU film i think it would work too. Any swearing could be bleeped out and Deadpool could react to that: "What the BLEEP!? Why can't I say BLEEP!? ...BLEEP! BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP!"

X-men is in trouble tho. It is for sure going to get rebooted. They will want to get Wolverine and a new cast in for sure. So X-Men Dark Phoenix will most likely be the last for that cast.

The real question is... What about The New Mutants? I haven't seen the film, so I don't know where it goes... But I really like the idea of it. Does it connect to the current XMU? or if it is separate enough could they keep it within anything new they do? Would be a shame if its just a one and done movie.
 
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Disney already owns some studios that do and have done Rated R stuff ... it just more so means likely that anything they dont want to put the Disney brand on they wont. I'm sure they'll operate a lot under the Fox umbrella still.

Another interesting thing is they have a majority stake in Hulu ... and we all already knew that Disney was removing all the Disney stuff from Netflix once expires and it was all going to go to their OWN streaming network as Star Wars tv show is scheduled for that etc. So if you now own Hulu and the infrastructure and subscriber base is already there seems you just roll with Hulu .... granted they own Sling too lol .... so which will it be on ... why create a 3rd that you own lol
 
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I don't think they are going to touch Deadpool. With it being such a huge hit, I think they even use him to bridge the gap between the MCU and the Fox owned properties. Its kind of its own separate thing anyways. Using Disney Meta jokes and things I think it could work well for it. Even if you want to put him in an MCU film i think it would work too. Any swearing could be bleeped out and Deadpool could react to that: "What the BLEEP!? Why can't I say BLEEP!? ...BLEEP! BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP!"

X-men is in trouble tho. It is for sure going to get rebooted. They will want to get Wolverine and a new cast in for sure. So X-Men Dark Phoenix will most likely be the last for that cast.

The real question is... What about The New Mutants? I haven't seen the film, so I don't know where it goes... But I really like the idea of it. Does it connect to the current XMU? or if it is separate enough could they keep it within anything new they do? Would be a shame if its just a one and done movie.

I like your take on Deadpool, bud. Hopefully Feige and company go that route. It'd be a shame to see Reynolds leave Deadpool (or get kicked out of being Deadpool) after it took him years to get it off the ground.

I'll miss the X-Men cast/storylines, though... especially Fassbender as Magneto.

Disney already owns some studios that do and have done Rated R stuff ... it just more so means likely that anything they dont want to put the Disney brand on they wont. I'm sure they'll operate a lot under the Fox umbrella still.

Another interesting thing is they have a majority stake in Hulu ... and we all already knew that Disney was removing all the Disney stuff from Netflix once expires and it was all going to go to their OWN streaming network as Star Wars tv show is scheduled for that etc. So if you now own Hulu and the infrastructure and subscriber base is already there seems you just roll with Hulu .... granted they own Sling too lol .... so which will it be on ... why create a 3rd that you own lol

I wish HULU would come into Canada already. I've been dying to watch the new Runaways show!
 
Someone had posted this on IG...
I spoiler tagged it in case this pans out somewhat.



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Well that would sure change a lot now with the addition of Fantastic Four and X-Men. ... I hope Marvel kicks things off with a Silver Surfer film featuring Galactus. That would be killer!!!

It's not a bad-looking list of films. Namor's rights are owned by Universal just like the Hulk, though, so we'll probably never see his film (though I'm sure they could feature him in an X-Men or Fantastic Four film).
 
Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn and the Scream franchise are technically all Disney films. Pulp famously being labeled the first Disney film to have a gay ****!
 
Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn and the Scream franchise are technically all Disney films. Pulp famously being labeled the first Disney film to have a gay ****!
Haven't been owned by Disney since 2010 when they sold off Miramax.

Miramax is owned by BeIN Media who is owned by Al Jazeera who is owned by Qatar Media Corp.
 
BREAKING NEWS!

According to AdWeek, Comcast has just made a $65 billion all-cash offer for 21st Century Fox in a Hail Mary play to aggressively wrest the company and its sizable assets from Disney. This move comes in the wake of Tuesday’s verdict that approved the merger of AT&T’s and Time Warner for $85 billion, despite efforts by the Justice Department to block it. The offer is expected to spark a bidding war between the two powerhouses, Disney and Comcast.

“After our meetings last year, we came away convinced that the 21CF businesses to be sold are highly complementary to ours, and that our company would be the right strategic home for them,” wrote Comcast CEO Brian Roberts in a letter to the Fox board of directors. “In light of yesterday’s decision in the AT&T/Time Warner case, the limited time prior to your shareholders’ meeting, and our strong continued interest, we are pleased to present a new, all-cash proposal that fully addresses the Board’s stated concerns with our prior proposal.”

In mid-December, The Walt Disney Company announced it would purchase 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox Film and Television studios, along with cable and international TV businesses, for $52.4 billion. Prior to the deal, Fox had entertained a much higher bid from Comcast in the low $60 billion range but ultimately terminated talks early on due to antitrust concerns. In February Comcast revived its interest in purchasing the 21st Century Fox assets, feeling confident that they could avoid entanglements that would incur government litigation as in the AT&T/Time Warner deal. Roberts has said that Comcast would match Disney’s $2.5 billion breakup fee should the deal fall apart due to regulatory issues.

Like Disney, Comcast already controls a major television network (NBC), a motion picture studio (Universal Pictures), several animation studios (Illumination Entertainment, Dreamworks Animation) and a theme park empire (Universal Studios). They also boast the second-largest pay-TV company after AT&T, largest cable TV company and largest home internet service provider in the United States. Their TV conflicts could potentially be settled by leaving regional Fox stations out of the deal.

However, part of the appeal of the Disney deal to the Murdoch family was its ability to make them influential Disney shareholders, with 21st Century Fox Chief Executive James Murdoch (son of Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch) potentially inheriting a high position at Disney if the deal is completed. On the film side, the Disney deal also boasts potential re-integration of Marvel and Star Wars assets, while a Universal deal boasts no such synergy. In 2017, Disney’s Buena Vista held a dominant 21.8% of the movie market share, while Universal Pictures held 13.8% with 20th Century Fox at 12%. Comcast, Disney and Fox all own interests in streaming giant Hulu, so either deal would boast a challenge to Netflix, although Disney plans to start its own separate streaming service in Fall 2019.

The Disney deal includes 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox 2000, 20th Century Fox Television, FX Productions, Fox21, FX Networks, National Geographic Partners, Fox Sports Regional Networks, Fox Networks Group International, Star India and Fox’s interests in Hulu, Sky, and Endemol Shine Group.

The deal doesn’t include the Fox Broadcasting network and stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2 and Big Ten Network. Those will be spun off into a newly-listed company.

When the deal was announced, it was also revealed that The Walt Disney Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger had agreed to continue in the position through the end of calendar year 2021 to oversee the transition.

Read more at http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/952675-breaking-comcast-makes-65-billion-dollar-offer-to-buy-fox#SMc43AbJCSaltLlQ.99
 
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