Has Comcast outfoxed Disney with $65bn bid for 21st Century Fox assets?
If the Fox board backs Comcast’s offer, Disney will have five days to make a countermove
New York — Your move, Disney. After Comcast made a $65bn bid on Wednesday for 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets — the same holdings that Walt Disney had agreed to buy for about $52.4bn — the Mouse House is under pressure to respond. At stake is a trove of media properties, ranging from The Simpsons to X-Men, that are key to Disney fending off the threat from Netflix and other streaming upstarts. The question is whether Disney can convince Fox investors that it’s still the most compelling partner. "What it really comes down to is price and who wants it more," says Paul Sweeney, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Comcast, the largest US cable-TV provider, is offering $35 per share for the Fox assets, saying the bid represents a 19% premium over the Disney offer. And it’s cash, rather than the stock that Disney is proposing.
The move follows AT&T’s victory over the US Justice Department in its antitrust battle to take over Time Warner. That outcome is expected to spur a ...
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