Business News Deals Media

Shareholders back Disney’s Fox purchase

By | Published on Monday 30 July 2018

21st Century Fox

Shareholders last week approved Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox to create a new entertainment industry powerhouse.

The Walt Disney Company announced late last year that it had agreed to buy most of the Rupert Murdoch-controlled 21st Century Fox in a deal worth $52.4 billion. Much of Fox’s US-based movie and television assets, plus its stake in the Sky TV business in Europe, are part of the deal.

It doesn’t include Murdoch’s media business News Corp – which owns newspapers and radio stations in the UK – and which was spun off from the movie and TV empire back in 2013. A handful of Fox’s news assets – including the infamous Fox News – are also not part of the deal, which will see Fox’s shareholders own 25% of the combined Disney/Fox business.

Shareholder approval for Disney’s big buy was expected. So there were no surprises when stockholders from both companies signed off on the arrangement late last week. The deal is still subject to regulator approval in some countries, although the American competition regulator has already OKed the arrangement.

Disney and Fox hope that by combining their businesses they can better compete with newer online rivals like Netflix and Amazon.



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