https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/06/21st-century-fox-has-been-holding-talks-to-sell-most-of-company-to-disney-sources.html

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 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.

David Faber | @DavidFaber
Published 17 Mins Ago Updated 1 Min Ago
CNBC.com

21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Disney: Sources
1 Min Ago | 03:08

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 that 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 Netflix changing 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 30 percent ownership of BSkyB. 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 B Sky B, 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.

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America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

Similar to amazon/google/apple etc...I love what Disney does, I love the overall quality of their products/services, but I am shitload afraid of them getting more power.

If this happened a decade ago we would have had some great xmen properties across media. But we wouldn't probably have had Logan or Deadpool.

>If this happened a decade ago we would have had some great
>xmen properties across media. But we wouldn't probably have
>had Logan or Deadpool.

Logan happened cause Jackman took a pay cut.

Deadpool happened cause someone leaked the demo reel.

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America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

because I still have faith in the overall vision Feige and Co. So many great movies and shows could come from those properties.

Also, I just want those books to be great again. I hate that kids can't have the feeling I had in the early 90s when the X-Men were poppin on basically every platform available at the time (game-changing show, epic arcade game, multiple blockbuster books running). And Fantastic Four has never reached its max potential IMHO. Even if Fantastic Four flopped again....at least Galactus and Silver Surfer would be in the MCU finally (imagine seeing a real Galactus on an IMAX screen or an almost completely silent Silver Surfer movie).

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Which I think is kind of a mistake. Yes, Netflix is raking in cash, but I'm not really sure the market wants to pay for ANOTHER streaming service beyond Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc.

Buying Fox's entertainment properties so they that now have the license to stream Buffy, Futurama, the X-Men movies etc. and boost the content on their streaming site seems a bit dicey.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

their streaming service, Marvel properties to expand that world even more beyond what they have done would be better than rehashing or rebooting.


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IG @h_n_z

One thing Netflix won't be able to claim pretty soon is a huge library of established and beloved movies as they move more and more toward simply functioning as a home for their own shit. Disney can definitely provide that, even on its own to some degree, with all of the Disney/Star Wars/Marvel/ABC/ESPN content they have. Combine that with Fox's entire library? That'd definitely be a major selling point.

And if they can lump ESPN sporting events in on this service as well? Oh yeah. People would buy it in an instant.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

Since they bought the company who does it. Moving into live streaming sports would be HUGE and if they are the first ones to provide that plus that whole catalogue? Geeez sign me up. They are already got me with Star Wars lol


----------

IG @h_n_z

<--- Big Baller World Order

two or three companies control each industry. sounds like a winner for us consumers

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http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/disney-fox-sale-talks-comcast-1202628942/

Disney Is Back in the Hunt for Parts of 21st Century Fox
By Brian Steinberg
DECEMBER 2, 2017 11:10AM PT

Walt Disney and 21st Century Fox have re-started more serious discussions that could result in the owner of ABC and ESPN picking up pieces of the empire controlled by the Murdoch family, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, while Comcast also remains interested in pursuing a potential deal.

A Fox spokesperson declined to comment on the report, while a Disney representative did not respond to a query seeking comment. A Comcast spokesman said the company declined to comment on the report.

As Variety reported last month, Fox has continued to hold preliminary discussions with Comcast, Disney, and other potential suitors about a sale process of the 20th Century Fox film and TV studio, the FX Networks and National Geographic cable group, Fox’s 30% stake in Hulu, and international TV platforms including Star India and its 39% interest in European satellite broadcaster Sky. Executives at Comcast and NBCUniversal are “being very serious” in studying the Fox assets and trying crunch the numbers with publicly available information, according to a person familiar with the matter. Sony and Verizon Communications are among the parties that have also expressed interest.

The combined value of the assets believed to be on the block is estimated at around $48.5 billion, according to media-industry analyst Michael Nathanson, with the 20th Century Fox film and TV production operation and library valued highest at around $15 billion.

Disney’s interest in the Fox assets first surfaced in early November, but the two sides were believed to have walked away over price and other terms. The ongoing talks signal that the Murdoch family, who have spent decades building a media empire that extends from the Fox broadcast network to Fox News Channel and The Wall Street Journal across two different media companies, see less room for growth for certain parts of the kingdom at a time when digital media is crimping the flow of many types of revenue that typically buoy the entertainment business.

The talks may not reach any conclusion, according to the Journal report. The Murdoch family hopes to determine whether to pursue a transaction by the end of the year.

An acquisition would add substantial heft to any company that made a successful purchase. Disney, which specializes in sports and family entertainment, would have new outlets like FX, known for its finesse with serialized drama and eyebrow-raising comedy, and the Fox TV studio, which produces “Modern Family,” a substantial piece of ABC’s primetime lineup, among other programs. Both Disney and Comcast are partial owners, along with Fox, of the video-streaming site Hulu. A purchase would likely give one of the partners more say in the site’s direction at a time when Netflix, Amazon and other purveyors of subscription-video-on-demand are making great strides in the marketplace.

Both companies are likely interested in Fox’s share of Sky. Fox has been trying to purchase the rest of the satellite broadcaster that it does not own for months, but has been slowed down by intense scrutiny from British regulators. Adding Sky to the portfolio would give Disney and Comcast new international reach.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/05/disney-and-fox-are-closing-in-on-deal-could-be-announced-next-week--sources.html

Disney and Fox are closing in on deal, could be announced next week: Sources

Talks have progressed and a deal could be announced as early as next week, sources tell CNBC.

The enterprise value of the Fox assets in the deal is seen as more than $60 billion.

Fox would sell movie and television production assets and keep its news, sports and broadcast network.

David Faber | @DavidFaber
Published 34 Mins Ago Updated 12 Mins Ago
CNBC.com

Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox are closing in on a deal and it could come as soon as next week, according to sources familiar with the matter.

CNBC has been reporting that Disney has held talks with the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media company to acquire its studio and television production assets, leaving Fox with its news and sports assets. Fox is also talking to CNBC parent company Comcast, but the talks with Disney have progressed more significantly.

The deal contemplates the sale of Fox's A&E, Star, regional sports networks, movie studios and stakes in Sky and Hulu, among other properties. What would remain at Fox includes its news and business news divisions, broadcast network and Fox sports.

The enterprise value for the Fox assets in the Disney deal is seen as above $60 billion, according to sources. Current Fox shareholders would get one share of the Fox company that remains after the movie and television assets are sold plus shares of Disney in a fixed exchange ratio.

Shares of 21st Century Fox rose 3.5 percent, while shares of Disney fell 0.98 percent Tuesday. Shares of Comcast fell 0.77 percent.

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America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

________________________________
There are dozens of us! Dozens!

lol marvel lol capcom.

<--- Big Baller World Order

that Dr. Strange loophole about to bust wide open

>lol marvel lol capcom.


After all that, “What do ya mean? its got nothing to do with fox owning the rights? We love the xmen, we just happen ro be trying new things!”

Suddenly xmen dlc announced on the gaming side
Marvel starts up Fantastic Four comics again (lol@em cancelling em in the first place)
Eternals suddenly disappear and go back to the Kirby comic nerd hole where they belong.

That said, since they were denied xmen they’ve done wonderful work with B level characters, I hope that streak continues and its not just wolvoe/Jean/Cyclops love triangles and Beast bitching about having blue hair. In a weird way MCU (and its influence in the comics)has kinda showed how stale the Xmen has gotten over the yeaes

It's lit.

A legit X-Men movie should be as colorful and vibrant as a guardians of the galaxy movie, not the stale shit we've been getting for over a decade. (Naw I didn't like first class or days of future past like that)

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If life is stupendous one cannot also demand that it should be easy. - Robert Musil

till we hear about Disney acquiring Verizon (or Sprint or TMob or whatever) in an effort for more consolidation?

Despite Trump's hilarious opposition to the ATT/Time Warner merger due to CNN, there are very powerful forces at work trying to merge those companies.

And with Net Neutrality on its death throes.... we the consumers are in for a world of hurt.

I don't think seeing the X-Men in the MCU is going to be worth the world we're becoming.

And think about this if the sale goes through, then all that money that Murdoch has made can give him enough money and power for him to buy CNN and turn it into a Fox News mega corporation. Or even give more power to Fox News.

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America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

Especially now that we're seeing the pipes merging with those companies as well.

Note that the partisan divide in American politics was exacerbated with the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine in the late 80's, leading to the rise of agenda-based cable news networks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEczkhfLwqM

Vertical integration has never been a major anti-trust issue in Congress because historically these mergers have been in manufacturing industries, where it makes a ton of sense.

But when those industries are **information** and **entertainment**?

We're fucked. We seriously are. The country is reaching inequality levels not seen since the Gilded Age and now media conglomeration is going to sugarcoat the real issues and feed us our entertainment morphine drip until some sort of reckoning happens.

This will take place over years and years of course, more than enough time for us to get inured to all the shit things that are happening (e.g, CFPB, EPA, FCC).

Fuck everything about this.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

Apparently, it's a done deal...

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

stuff like this

https://screenrant.com/disney-bans-la-times-movies/

will become the norm but hey...yay for wolverine in yellow spandex cracking jokes with the hulk i guess?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/12/12/fox-had-a-massive-day-at-the-golden-globes-now-it-all-could-end/?utm_term=.b1075754a1e7

Business Analysis

Fox had a massive day at the Golden Globes. Now it all could end.

By Steven Zeitchik December 12 at 5:00 AM

When the Golden Globes announced its nominations Monday, it offered a tale of two cities.

In one camp was 21st Century Fox. The company had nothing less than a dominating performance. The three most nominated movies of the day — “The Shape of Water,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and “The Post” — all came from Fox units. (The most-nominated among them was “The Shape of Water,” the Guillermo del Toro 1950’s-era genre mashup, with seven.) The studio also scored three nominations for the Hugh Jackman circus musical “The Greatest Showman.”

Collectively, Fox had 27 film nominations — more than twice the nearest competitor (Sony, with 12). Sister company FX also had eight nominations on the TV side, driven primarily by “Feud” and “Fargo.” That was good enough for third place, behind just HBO and Netflix. And that’s not counting a show like this “This Is Us,” which is produced by Fox’s TV studio division and had three nominations of its own. A company that was an awards also-ran a few years ago was now an unassailable leader.

In a very different camp sat Disney. The entertainment giant didn’t, well, have much of anything at all. It’s not really in the awards business anymore.

The company landed just two nominations on the film side and three, via ABC, in TV.

This isn’t an idle contrast, of course. Disney is poised to buy much of Fox — both the entire film studio operation and FX. Which means the 2017-2018 Golden Globes powerhouse is about to undergo a major transformation. And it raises the question: What would happen to productions like these in a combined company?

The generous read would be that they’d do just fine because Fox complementarily has movies and shows that Disney doesn’t traffic in. Disney could take advantage of Fox’s foothold in this area to beef up its offerings with original intellectual property.

More realistically, though, say analysts and insiders, Disney would take long and close looks at productions like these. Many of them would struggle to exist in a studio focused on global blockbusters, or tentpoles, as Disney does.

That’s because most original movies, though costing a lot less than the sequels and brand-driven productions Disney specializes in, come with much greater uncertainty.

Disney executives, for example, would have loved “Hidden Figures,” the 2016 box-office phenomenon that had a lot of awards traction too. But would they want “Battle of the Sexes” or “Patti Cakes,” two highly touted 2017 Searchlight releases that fizzled both with voters and at the box office? Prestige filmmaking is a dice toss even in the best of years. A company like Disney that seeks safety in brands might not want to bother.

In fact, the last time the firm was seriously in the specialty film game was more than a decade ago, with Miramax. And that didn’t end so well.

Fox’s resurgence has been driven by Stacey Snider, the Universal and DreamWorks veteran who has restored Twentieth Century Fox’s luster with the kind of mainstream but award-friendly material embodied by “The Post.” She also has continued to offer broad support to Fox Searchlight, the long-standing specialty division run by Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula, that has relocated its awards momentum of a few years ago with “The Shape of Water” and “Three Billboards.”

But where will this be in a combined Disney-Fox? Experts say Snider is likely to leave in a merger; she wouldn’t have the necessary latitude with Disney chief Alan Horn already in place. How much Twentieth Century Fox would even exist as a separate studio remains up in the air.

Searchlight, one of the longest running and most successful of Hollywood’s specialty divisions, could continue, though with what staff and mandate also remains an open question.

The dozens of Golden Globes nominations offer one of the best arguments for why Fox is so desired by Disney.

Or they could be the studio’s last hurrah.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/business/dealbook/disney-fox-deal.html

Disney Makes Deal for 21st Century Fox, Reshaping Entertainment Landscape

By BROOKS BARNESDEC. 14, 2017



LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company said Thursday that it had reached a deal to buy most of the assets of 21st Century Fox, the conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, in an all-stock transaction valued at roughly $52.4 billion.

To complete the integration, a legacy-defining task, Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, agreed to renew his contract for a fourth time, delaying retirement from July 2019 to the end of 2021.

While the merger still requires approval by antitrust regulators — and the Justice Department recently moved to block a big media company from becoming even bigger — the once unthinkable acquisition promises to reshape Hollywood and Silicon Valley. It is the biggest counterattack from a traditional media company against the tech giants that have aggressively moved into the entertainment business.

Disney now has enough muscle to become a true competitor to Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook in the fast-growing realm of online video.

At the same time, the agreement means that one of moviedom’s most historic studios, 20th Century Fox, will be downsized, with some operations folded into Walt Disney Studios or refocused to make films designed for online distribution. Founded in 1935, the Fox studio championed Marilyn Monroe, produced classics like “The Sound of Music,” released the first “Star Wars” movie and, more recently, turned “Avatar” into the biggest ticket-seller of all time.

Continue reading the main story
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But lately, like most of Hollywood, 20th Century Fox has struggled to keep pace with the changing way younger audiences view content — namely on an internet-connected device.

“We’re honored and grateful that Rupert Murdoch has entrusted us with the future of businesses he spent a lifetime building,” Mr. Iger said.

Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, hopes 21st Century will supercharge its plans to introduce two Netflix-style streaming services. The company’s first major streaming effort, ESPN Plus, will arrive in the spring. A second and still unnamed offering, built around the company’s Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar brands, will roll out late next year. Rounding out its streaming portfolio will be Hulu, the already established service that focuses on older viewers with programming that includes ABC shows.

Mr. Iger is buying 21st Century Fox’s minority stake in Hulu, resulting in majority control of the streaming service by Disney, which previously owned 30 percent. Comcast and Time Warner also have stakes in Hulu.

“We’re going to launch big, and we’re going to launch hot,” Mr. Iger said in September when announcing Disney’s streaming strategy. At the time, it could have been viewed as old-fashioned exaggeration.

Not anymore.

Disney is purchasing the Fox television studio, which has 36 series in production, including “The Simpsons,” “Homeland,” “This Is Us” and “Modern Family.” Disney’s significantly smaller TV factory, ABC Studios, has delivered series of inconsistent quality and lost its biggest hitmaker in August when the “Grey’s Anatomy” producer Shonda Rhimes decamped for Netflix.

As part of the deal, Disney will also get the FX and National Geographic cable networks, and stakes in two behemoth overseas television-service providers, Sky of Britain and Star of India. That component of the deal would seem to contradict Disney’s push to lessen its reliance on traditional television, a business built on third-party cable subscriptions that is now in decline as people turn to streaming services for home entertainment.

But those assets serve another one of Mr. Iger’s strategic goals: making Disney more of an international player. Disney has major operations in Europe, Japan and China, where it opened Shanghai Disneyland last year. But most of Disney’s profit still comes from the United States, where ESPN dominates, despite recent struggles, and annual attendance at Walt Disney World in Florida and the Disneyland Resort in California totals 162 million people.


Since taking over as Disney’s chief executive in 2005, Mr. Iger has greatly expanded Disney’s theme park operations, opening in Shanghai against all odds and nearly tripling the size of Disney Cruise Line. Walt Disney Studios, bolstered by Mr. Iger’s acquisitions of Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel, has become Hollywood’s runaway leader.

But pulling off the acquisition of 21st Century Fox dwarfs those deals and will create complex integration challenges. Some executives who work at Fox’s studio offices in Los Angeles have been complaining bitterly about the prospect of Disney cost-cutting.

----
bshelly

"You (Fisher) could get fired, Les Snead could get fired, Kevin Demoff could get fired, but I will always be Eric Dickerson.” (c) The God

-30-
You know it's drama, but it sound real good.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/13/media/comcast-fox-bid/index.html

Comcast bids $65 billion for most of 21st Century Fox
by Jill Disis
June 13, 2018: 4:47 PM ET

Comcast is going all-in to win 21st Century Fox.
The company on Wednesday formalized a $65 billion all-cash bid for most of Fox. It's a dramatic attempt to thwart Disney, which reached a $52.4 billion deal in December for the same film and TV assets.

Comcast's (CMCSA) move comes one day after a federal judge ruled that AT&T (T) could buy Time Warner (TWX). The Justice Department had sued to stop the deal. (CNN is a unit of Time Warner.)

The offer sets the stage for a high-stakes bidding war between two of the biggest players in media and telecom. Both Comcast and Disney (DIS) are eager to buy Fox as a way to bolster their influence in a changing industry.

Consumers are cutting their cable subscriptions and spending more time with online services like Netflix (NFLX). Purchasing Fox is a way to scale up.

The winner of the Comcast-Disney showdown would get Fox's movie studio, which is responsible for franchises like "Avatar" and "X-Men," along with Fox's regional sports networks and cable channels like FX and National Geographic.

Fox's Rupert Murdoch is keeping a few properties, including Fox News, the Fox Sports national cable channels and the Fox broadcasting network. Those will be spun off into a new company.

"We have long admired what the Murdoch family has built at Twenty-First Century Fox," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts wrote Wednesday in a letter to Fox detailing the proposal.

Comcast was in talks to buy Fox late last year. But it lost out to Disney in part because major Fox investors weren't sure the proposal would win over government regulators. Around the same time, the Justice Department sued to block the AT&T-Time Warner deal.

Both deals share similarities: AT&T and Comcast are distributors trying to buy content creators.

Comcast re-entered the picture last month when it said publicly that it was preparing a bid for Fox.

Roberts is known as a tenacious dealmaker. One of his direct reports, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke, told the Los Angeles Times: "Brian never gives up. We have worked on a lot of deals together and he just out-hustles everyone. He's a very persistent guy."

Wednesday's offer is likely a sign that Comcast thinks AT&T's victory might help its chances, and placate the antitrust concerns that Fox had last year.

Roberts wrote in his letter that Comcast is "highly confident" its offer will "obtain all necessary regulatory approvals in a timely manner." He said Comcast's proposal is at least as likely to pass muster with regulators as Disney's.

Now the ball is in Fox's court. The company's board will need to determine whether Comcast's offer is reasonably likely to be better than Disney's. If they do, they will start negotiating with Comcast.

Should the board decide Comcast has the better deal, Disney would have five days to come up with a counter.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/86/41/23/864123613b3bc9d5b8edef05ff2e106a.jpg

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One Hundred.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/20/disney-raises-bid-for-fox-assets-to-38-a-share.html

This thread depresses the shit outta me

https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/19/media/comcast-fox-disney/index.html

Disney wins: Comcast drops its bid for 21st Century Fox
by Dylan Byers and David Goldman
July 19, 2018: 9:32 AM ET

Disney has won the war for 21st Century Fox.
Comcast announced Thursday that it will drop its pursuit of the 21st Century Fox assets that it was fighting over with Disney.

Comcast had bid $65 billion for Fox's movie studio, which is responsible for franchises like "Avatar" and "X-Men," along with Fox's regional sports networks and cable channels like FX and National Geographic. Disney's most recent bid was $71 billion.

The battle with Disney isn't completely over: Comcast said Thursday it will continue to pursue its bid for British broadcaster Sky, which Disney is also trying to buy through Fox. Comcast has offered $34 billion for that company.

A Comcast takeover of Sky would deprive Fox, and thus Disney, of a major direct-to-consumer platform in Europe that Iger has described as a "crown jewel" of the Fox assets.

Over the course of the bidding war, 21st Century Fox's value surged 36% as Disney, then Comcast, then Disney again bid for rights to most of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

The Murdochs will hold onto their broadcast, news and national sports programming, including Fox News, Fox Business and Fox Sports. The new company, known as "New Fox," will be headed by Lachlan Murdoch.

"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," Comcast chief Brian Roberts said in a statement.

The bidding war between Iger and Roberts had become one of the most closely followed stories among Hollywood executives, given the sheer scale of the acquisition and the two men's well-known dislike for one another.

By winning the war for Fox, Disney will now have arguably the most formidable content portfolio in all of Hollywood, adding to an already impressive stable that includes Marvel, Pixar and LucasFilm.

But Sky is the other piece of the puzzle: One of Disney's top priorities is building direct-to-consumer relationships globally, so that it can compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon. Sky has a direct-to-consumer relationship with 23 million paying subscribers across five European countries, making it a key part of the overall Fox acquisition.

Should Sky go to Comcast, Iger would effectively cede the direct-to-consumer market in Europe to Roberts, who would then oversee the biggest pay-TV provider in the world.

Disney won the US Justice Department's approval for its acquisition of Fox assets last month. It agreed to spin off Fox's sports networks to get the government's blessing.

In an unrelated but equally consequential decision, the Justice Department last week appealed a court's approval of AT&T's purchase of Time Warner, the parent company of CNN.

That effectively drove a stake through Comcast's chances of buying Fox: Comcast's deal looks a lot more like AT&T's Time Warner purchase than Disney's Fox bid.

<--- Big Baller World Order

Apparently, the meeting lasted a whole ten minutes.

Let's see what happens next.

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America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/disney-deadpool-marvel-r-rated-1203129498/

Disney Promises Marvel Will Keep Making R-Rated ‘Deadpool’ Movies
By BRENT LANG
FEBRUARY 5, 2019 2:34PM PT

There may be a few more F-bombs dropped around the Magic Kingdom.

The Walt Disney Company has enjoyed a squeaky clean image as the preeminent provider of family-friendly entertainment. However, things may get a little less wholesome with the upcoming acquisition of much of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets, a $71.3 billion purchase that will bring darker brands such as FX and Fox Searchlight into the Disney fold. It also means that Fox, which has reaped big profits making R-rated Marvel superhero films such as “Deadpool” and “Logan,” will now be reunited with the Avengers, a team of heroes that never breaches the PG-13 parameters while saving the world.

On a call with investors, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said that Disney will continue to make R-rated Deadpool movies and other adult-oriented Marvel adventures after it absorbs much of Fox.

“We will continue in that business,” promised Iger, adding, “There’s certainly popularity” with those types of films.

Iger hinted that these films won’t be released under the traditional Marvel or Disney banner. The company will make it an effort to ensure it is “carefully branding …so we’re not in any way confusing the consumer,” Iger said.

That will come as a relief for fanboys and fangirls who worried that the Disney might scrub a certain Merc’s mouth out with soap. However, it probably means that any Deadpool and Toy Story crossovers will have to remain in the realm of perverse pop culture fan fiction.