Disney Officially Owns 21st Century Fox including Hulu, Nat Geo, FX, The Simpsons, Avatar, & X-Men
Last July, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox for $71B after an extended bidding war with Comcast. Today, the media giant became the official owner of the company.
The deal will leave Disney as the owner of 21st Century Fox which would also make them the majority shareholder of streaming service Hulu, as well as the owner of 20th Century Fox, FX Networks, and National Geographic. The final $71B deal — 50% in cash and 50% in stock — surpassed Disney’s original offer of $52.4B and Comcast’s $65B counteroffer.
Assets that Disney did not acquire including FOX, FS1, Fox News, and Fox Business Network, were spun off into a separate company called New Fox.
The deal includes:
- 20th Century Fox
- 20th Century Fox Television
- FX Networks
- National Geographic
- Fox Regional Sports Networks
- 30% Stake in Hulu
- Stake in international networks Sky and Star TV.
As part of the deal, Disney acquired prestigious properties like The Simpsons, Avatar, X-Men, Deadpool, Fantastic Four, and hit FX show Atlanta. The company is also in active talks to possibly acquire an additional 10% stake in Hulu from AT&T (who acquired their stake in their acquisition of Time Warner) — which would give them a 70% stake in the streaming service.
Disney still needs to divest Fox Regional Sports Networks, which originally was thought to fetch as much as $25B, but has struggled to find bidders. According to reports, Rapper Ice Cube has partnered with investment bank Macquarie Group and entrepreneur Carolyn Rafaelian on a bid for the channels for ~$10B.