We have been talking about this potential deal for a while but it has officially happen today. Disney and Fox have come to an agreement for a mere $52.4 Billion all-stock transaction. The Walt Disney Company has purchased all of 21st Century Fox’s movies and television series. Fox still exists with the Fox television network, Fox Sports, and Fox News. Disney bought the rest of 21st Century Fox.
The The Simpsons and Family Guy now join Micky Mouse and friends as animated characters in the Disney house. Can you imagine Bart Simpson teaming up with Donald Duck? I doubt we will see this anytime soon but you never know.
The biggest geek discussion of this merger is the X-Men and the Fantastic Four back into the Marvel Universe family. We could see mutants and Marvel’s First Family showing up in the Marvel Entertainment Universe soon. How awesome would it be for the X-Men and Fantastic Four to show up in Avengers 4?
Disney positioned themselves to compete with Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook for Online video content. Disney had announced plans to for a video streaming service similar to Netflix for late in 2018. The content of Fox added to their own makes them a major player.
Disney previously owned 30% of Hulu. Fox owned 30% of Hulu. Now Disney owns controlling stock in the company with 60%. Comcast and Time Warner also own stakes in Hulu. With controlling stakes in Hulu, Disney could use the already established Hulu platform to run their new streaming service. They will need to find a way to get Comcast and Time Warner on board. Since Disney now has controlling stake, you have to think they will find a way to get this done. As a current Hulu subscriber, this idea of Disney adapting Hulu is exciting.
This acquisition will also enlarge other areas of Disney. Their cable presence will expand with FX, National Geographic, the Fox’s regional sports networks. They now have 39% stake in UK satellite television provider Sky. They also go global with Fox’s international cable networks, including Star India.
With this deal, Disney CEO Bob Iger has agreed to stay on as CEO of Disney through 2021. This was part of the agreement with Rupert Murdoch for the sale. Murdoch didn’t want to turn over Fox and have someone else take the Disney brand in a different direction. This is good news for parts of Disney that enjoy Iger’s hands off as long as you make money approach such as Marvel Studios.
Stay Geeky My Friends!
