Last July, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox for $71.3B after an extended bidding war with Comcast. Today, at the company’s annual shareholders meeting, Disney CEO, Bob Iger, shared that the deal is expected to close “soon.”
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 $71.3B deal — 50% in cash and 50% in stock — surpassed Disney’s original offer of $52.4B and Comcast’s $65B counteroffer.
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.
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).
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.