Walt Disney Company revealed last year that it will be buying 21st Century Fox and now it seems that the deal is about to close. This means that the former will now formally acquire the latter and merged to form a better entertainment outfit.
On March 12, via press release, Disney announced that it "expects no further extension of the expiration date (March 15, 2019) of the offers to exchange any and all outstanding notes issued by 21st Century Fox America, Inc." It added that with no extension, the full acquisition or turnover will be effective at exactly 12:02 a.m. Eastern Time on March 20.
The fact that Disney already set the date of turnover on March 20 means that it successfully procured the final authorization requirement from Mexico's telecoms regulator for the purchase of FOX. The acquisition came about after FOX put its assets on sale and bidding between Comcast Corp and Disney started in early 2018.
Initially, Disney was supposed to but the entertainment network for $52.4 billion but Comcast made a counter-offer so the bid price rose to $71.3 billion. According to sources, the latter dropped out from the bidding race because it believed the cost became too high.
Reuters reported that with Disney's win, Comcast's chief executive, Brian Roberts, congratulated their bidding rival. "I'd like to congratulate Bob Iger and the team at Disney and commend the Murdoch family and Fox for creating such a desirable and respected company," he said.
Once the turnover is completed, Disney will take over Fox's film and television studios which means that Walt's company will now own the rights of the "Avatar" franchise and a number of Marvel films such as "Fantastic Four," "Deadpool" and "X-Men." What's more, Disney will be able to increase its stake in Hulu by half - from 30 to 60 percent.
On the downside, the merging of the two leading entertainment firms in Hollywood will lead to massive layoffs. As estimated, around 4,000 people may lose their jobs. For the executives of FOX like Peter Rice, Dana Walden, John Landgraf and Gary Knell, they will join Disney and assume important positions in the company.
Meanwhile, Disney will not buy the rest of Fox's assets including Fox News so what will remain from the purchase will be put together and form a new company that will be called Fox Corporation.
