Walt Disney Company to acquire Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc.

The news broke out yesterday and took the world by a storm, Disney has sealed the deal to acquired 21st Century Fox including most of its assets for approximately $52.4PHP 3,075INR 4,441EUR 50CNY 381 billion in stock. This deal brings a major shift in the film and TV industry, particularly in the movie scene.

The assets of 21st Century Fox that will now belong to Disney include Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox 2000 which are home to Avatar, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool, among others. Disney will also acquire Twentieth Century Fox Television, FX Productions, and Fox21 which brought to life various TV series such as The Americans, This Is Us, Modern Family, and The Simpson.

However, some assets of 21st Century Fox will not be joining Disney and would instead be distributed to the mass media corporation’s shareholders before the official acquisition. These assets include Fox Broadcasting network and stations, Fox News, Fox Business, FS1, FS2 and Big Ten Network. The reason why Disney is unable to claim Fox’ broadcast network is that due to Federal law one company cannot own more than one broadcast network and they already own ABC.

Probably the biggest impact of this acquisition is that Disney now owns the right to X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool. Which means major changes are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Marvel sold the rights of X-Men and Fantastic Four to Fox a long time ago which prevented the two franchises to be integrated into the MCU. With the recent announcement of the deal, Marvel fans can now expect that sometime in the future the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool will make an appearance alongside the other characters of the MCU.

Apart from that, the deal will also bring enhancements to Disney’s worldwide offerings and would enable the mass media entertainment company to further improve its Television reach on the global market.

source: The Walt Disney Company