Disney to buy Fox for $52 Billion
In a much speculated move The Walt Disney Company has today revealed that it plans to purchase 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets for a total $52.4bn (£39bn).
The deal sees Disney continue it’s acquisition mission after spending over a decade (and billion of dollars) purchasing the rights to Pixar, which was purchased in 2006 for $7.4 billion, Marvel ($4 billion in 2007) and Lucasfilm ($4 billion in 2012).
The deal will no doubt lead to speculation over the future of Fox-owned brands which include The Simpsons and the currently cancelled Futurama. The deal will also see Marvel characters – currently owned by Fox – make their way back into the Marvel fold, opening up the possibility of characters such as Fantastic Four, Deadpool and X-Men making their way into the hugely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe. Twitter has already exhausted itself hilariously announcing which Fox assets are now Disney Princesses.
Whilst the status of the newly acquired I.P is interesting, the acquisition will also see Disney become a majority shareholder in Hulu, making it the top competitor to Netflix. As Netflix continues to dominate the booming video on demand streaming services industry the deal could add more competition to the market. When considering competition it is also worth noting the size pf this deal, which is by no means over. The enormity of the purchase could throw the deal into question from the competition authority and will take a long time to finalise everything.
Relax for now twitter, you’ve still got a long while to wait until Dana Scully becomes a Disney Princess.