As expected, it was announced today (Thursday, Dec. 14) that the Walt Disney Co. is indeed buying a huge chunk of 21st Century Fox, including its movie and TV divisions.
Here's a breakdown from Deadline:
"Disney is paying $52.4 billion in stock for Fox assets in an all-stock deal that would leave Fox investors owning a 25% stake of Disney. [...]
The deal, officially valued at $66.1 billion including assumption of debt, will create an entertainment colossus that expands Disney's footprint in every area.
The agreement encompasses Fox's prolific film and television studios, its FX and National Geographic cable networks, Fox's regional sports networks, its 39% stake in U.K. satellite television provider Sky and its international cable networks, including Star India.
It also includes one of the most coveted film libraries in the game — something that will be important as Disney pursues its ambitions to become a streaming media giant that challenges Netflix and forges direct relationships with consumers."
The deal does not include Fox News, Fox Sports, the broadcast network, or local stations. But Disney is also buying Fox's majority stake in Hulu's video streaming service.
Arguably the biggest takeaway for superhero fans is that the film rights to Fox's Marvel characters like Deadpool, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men will revert back to Disney's Marvel Studios. Disney will also own James Cameron's Avatar franchise. So now Disney has Disney characters, obviously, plus Pixar, Lucasfilm (Star Wars), Marvel, Fox's Marvel characters, Fox's other film characters, etc.
The details are dizzying, and here are more bonus tidbits with the deal, via Variety:
"Fox owns the studio, for example, that produces the ABC hit 'Modern Family.' Now Disney will take control of the program, and benefit from syndication and other distribution of the series. The 20th Century Fox studio has the rights to make movies for Marvel characters like 'X-Men' the result of deals struck before Disney purchased Marvel in 2009. Fox also controls rights to the one 'Star Wars' film that is not under Disney's aegis – the first movie in the franchise, 'Star Wars: A New Hope.'"
It's a massive deal, and definitely gives Disney more power than you can possibly imagine everyone else. Is that really a good thing?
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