Disney in talks to purchase 21st Century Fox

21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Disney: Sources

• 21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co., according to people familiar with the situation.
• Disney would not purchase all of Fox, according to people with knowledge of the talks.
• Fox is said to believe that a more tightly focused group of properties around news and sports could compete more effectively.
• The two sides are not currently talking at this very moment, sources said.

21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co., leaving behind a media company tightly focused on news and sports, according to people familiar with the situation.

The talks have taken place over the last few weeks and there is no certainty they will lead to a deal. The two sides are not currently talking at this very moment, but given the on again, off again nature of the talks, they could be revisited.

For Fox, the willingness to engage in sale talks with Disney stems from a growing belief among its senior management that scale in media is of immediate importance and there is not a path to gain that scale in entertainment through acquisition. The company is said to believe that a more tightly focused group of properties around news and sports could compete more effectively in the current marketplace.


The media landscape has changed considerably in recent years with giants such as Facebook, Google (Alphabet), Amazon and Netflixchanging the way people consume media and dominating the digital distribution of digital video content. Being able to compete in that changing landscape, many people believe, requires scale that a Disney has, but 21st Century Fox does not.

For Disney, the opportunity to take control of another movie studio and significant TV production assets as it readies a direct-to-consumer entertainment streaming offering is attractive as is Fox's significant exposure to international markets, such as the U.K., Germany and Italy — both through its networks and 39 percent ownership of Sky. Disney recently announced it will pull all of its movies from the Netflix platform and will establish two direct-to-consumer offerings: one for sports and one including its key franchises such as "Star Wars" and Marvel.

Disney would not purchase all of Fox, according to people with knowledge of the talks.

The company could not own two broadcast networks and would therefore not buy the Fox broadcast network. It would not buy Fox's sports programming assets in the belief that combining them with ESPN could be seen as anti-competitive from an antitrust standpoint and it would not buy the Fox News or Business channel. Disney would also not purchase Fox's local broadcasting affiliates, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

In addition to the movie studio, TV production and international assets such as Star and Sky, Disney would also add entertainment networks such as FX and National Geographic.

The contemplated structure of the deal or the price that has been discussed could not be learned. Given it would involve the sale of many, but not all of Fox's properties, it's unclear how Fox would mitigate potential tax consequences of a deal.

Officials at Disney and Fox declined to comment. Fox shares ended Monday higher by 9.9 percent. Disney added 2 percent on the day.

 

Do you realize what this means????



All under one main studio. XMen vs Avengers? Yep. Wolverine vs Hulk? YEP! Guardians of the Galaxy vs Galactus!

 

Disney Acquisition Of Fox Rumored To Be Gaining Steam


Talks of Disney acquiring certain divisions of 21st Century Fox have cooled, but after news went public both companies saw decent bumps in value on the stock market.

A new rumor suggests that talks have once again started picking up and that the Walt Disney Corporation could acquire the entertainment wings of their rival, further bolstering their media empire.


As part of Deadline's irregular column "Bart & Fleming," reporters Mike Fleming Jr. and Peter Bart discussed the possibility becoming ever more likely.

"The version I heard has the Murdoch clan keeping possession of sports and news properties, and the rest of TV and the film studio going to Disney," wrote Fleming. "Radio silence right now from both studios, and given how Disney made the Marvel and Lucasfilm deals under the cone of silence, if this happens we’ll probably only know it when it’s announced.


"It is certainly being talked about today. Not surprisingly, the reaction around town is not enthusiasm, because of the uncertainty that comes with potentially reducing a major studio to content generators under the Disney silo system."

If true, this is a major development in the ongoing saga between the two media giants.


While many fans point to the obvious benefits of Marvel properties coming together or Star Warsdistribution rights being solved, Fleming points out some major downsides to the deal.

Should News Corp. refocus their efforts to sports and news, it would create a loss of jobs in the industry as certain redundancies are consolidated for the sake of saving money.

Sure, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four would jump back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, offering a new wave of opportunities for the future of the film and television properties.


And then there's Star Wars, with the original film's distribution rights belonging to 20th Century Fox in perpetuity.

And then all of the properties they'd acquire, like James Cameron's Avatar and many others.

Of course, this deal isn't solely contingent on IPs like those, but of the vast library of Fox's content and distribution rights. 

While it might seem like a great idea for fans, those involved in production have a little more to worry about if the acquisition goes through.

 

The dream is real: FOX and DISNEY have come to terms! X-Men/FF, assemble!



Paging Mr. Jackman! Precious Roy here with astounding news to astonish!

It looks like that Wall Street Journal report about Disney returning to the negotiating table with Fox that Hercules reported on were true! According to inside sources, the deal is done, and Disney has bought Fox’s television and television film assets, their worldwide distribution arm, their FILM/TV library and their studio facilities worldwide.... leaving the news corporation and the sports wing to a leaner Fox.

This means great things. For most AICN fans, first and foremost is those Marvel rights for Fantastic Four, Marvel’s first family, will be returned to Marvel, and as Kevin Feige and company move on to a post-Robert Downey Jr. future in the franchise, they will have nearly the entire mythology free. As Hercules indicated Monday, we may not see Wolverine and X-Men in AVENGERS 4, but we just might see the Baxter Building, Graymalkin Lane, and Nakatomi Plaza. It could make AVENGERS 4 a moment to herald a new freedom in the MCU.

Whilst the Fantastic Four’s absence from the MCU has been hard, far worse has been the word, “Mutant”. It has frustrated Agents of SHIELD plots, caused some headaches over the Scarlet Witch, and been this elephant in the room that no one in the MCU is allowed to talk about. Suddenly, that’s gone. Now, Kitty Pryde and Star-Lord can meet-cute. A new, relevant Dr. Doom can get ahold of the Cosmic Cube. The Avengers can take sides in the Mutant Registration Act, or the Mutants can choose not to take sides in the Sokovian accords. A lot of actors and actresses will be getting their headshotstomorrow, and looking up real estate around Atlanta.

This deal means that if the X-Men and the Guardians of the Galaxy have an outer space adventure together, and encounter The Brood, they can be the progeny of xenomorph (ALIEN) implanted mutants. Chris Claremont's homage to Ridley Scott's horror icon can actually be canon to that series, now.

Beyond Marvel, Aliens, Predator, Apes, Avatar, Die Hard and all the licenses and rights, there are other things to consider. It means that there could be a full Simpsons Theme park wing at Walt Disney World, would Universal have to dismantle theirs now when their lease runs out? (Though, probably not before they sort out the problem of Apu.) It means that the considerable catalog of Fox films and television—since 1935—might fall under Disney, well.

From an indie perspective, this isn’t great news. Disney will be a powerhouse. This is not great for Warner Brothers, who were, up until recently, the much bigger kid on the block. Disney’s ability to frustrate competition and own the market will be much, much greater. As Ryan Reynolds has pointed out, Fox was an environment in which an R-rated Deadpool worked. Now, there will likely be talks and negotiations to see if Disney will keep it as it is, or try to bring the violence and sexual content down to a PG-13 level for their mass audience.

I can’t imagine them toning Deadpool down. Deadpool is a niche market of R-rated fun for adults, and I’ll bet Marvel/Disney is smart enough to understand that and work with it.

Read all about it here

And yes, it’s true: we may see Hugh Jackman return to Wolverine for this.