By Jamie Barrie T here is lots of action in the entrainment industry as Twenty-First Century Fox held talks to sell most of the com- panies estimated $24 billion of movie studio, TV production and international assets to Walt Disney Co. sending shares in both companies upwards. CNBC has reported the two sides were not currently talking, but had held talks in the last few weeks, reflecting a view among Fox managers that the firm could not gain the size needed to compete with Amazon, Netflix and other major media players. Disney, which under U.S. rules could not own two broadcast networks, would not purchase all of Fox, and would not seek to buy Fox’s sports programming assets in fear of violating any antitrust laws with its own ESPN network. Fox News and Fox’s local broadcasting affiliates will also not be part of any deal due to Disney’s ownership of ABC.
The deal would leave Fox a much smaller company but more focused on news and sports, not entertainment programming and movies. Most analysts say that this is a good deal for both com- panies as Disney is better at operating assets like studios and movie production and can offer more growth when these are consolidated with other assets that are owned by Disney.
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NOVEMBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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