Disney Ups Bid For 21st Century Fox To $71.3 Billion, Knocks Comcast Back
The battle over the movie and TV studios of 21st Century Fox is one that has been a back-and-forth fight with a lot of money thrown around. Disney originally stepped in with an offer of $52.4 billion in stock back in December, and the deal seemed to be in the bag. Then, Comcast recently jumped in with an offer of $65 billion in cash and things became a bit shaky as to which way Fox would go. Well, Disney has fired back and with their latest offer, the fight seems to be almost magically over.
Variety is reporting that The Walt Disney Company has now upped their offer to $71.3 billion in cash and stock in an effort to purchase 21st Century Fox. The deal would come in at about 50 percent cash and 50 percent stock with Disney paying $38 per share to Fox.
Disney’s initial bid was $28 per share, and that is a huge jump in the course of just half a year. This also marks a jump of close to $3 higher than the amount that Comcast bid just last week.
According to Bloomberg, Fox has accepted the offer from Disney and says it offers more flexibility than what Comcast could provide them. Still, nothing is set in stone or done yet as Comcast still has the opportunity and time to strike back with yet another counter offer if they so choose.
Fox agrees to $71 billion bid from Disney in blow to Comcast https://t.co/jNMYzqcQOD pic.twitter.com/Xz6aOntLne
— Bloomberg (@business) June 20, 2018
Whichever company ends up winning the bidding war over 21st Century Fox, they are going to receive a huge library with some of the biggest franchises and properties in history. Should Disney take control and end up purchasing 21st Century Fox, they would finally be able to merge all of the Marvel franchises together in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Yes, that does mean the X-Men and Avengers would be under the same banner, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Disney will go the route of putting them in a movie together. Don’t forget, Deadpool is a Fox property as well and he would also join the MCU.
Along with the movie studio, the winning bidder would also receive the TV studios of 21st Century Fox which includes lucrative franchises like The Simpsons. With Disney launching their own streaming service in 2019, they’d have an even larger library to help compete against Netflix.
Once Disney announced their latest bid on Wednesday, their shares had risen 1.5 percent and Fox shares jumped up 8.3 percent before late afternoon. The battle for 21st Century Fox is far from over, but Comcast is going to have to do a lot of thinking before trying to outbid Disney’s $71.3 billion offer. Their last offer would have already brought Comcast a lot of debt, but they still may not want to give up on such a promising merger.
