After weeks of speculation and rumor, Disney completed the $66.1 billion (including debt) acquisition of the majority of 21st Century Fox on Thursday, Dec. 14. It’s an all-stock transaction which, according to a Newsweek article, will cost Disney $52.4 billion.
The Disney-owned 21st Century Fox will now split from Fox News, Fox Business, and other Fox broadcasting stations.
Disney now has ownership of the 20th Century Fox film and television studio, National Geographic, FX Networks, regional sports networks, and Fox’s stakes in Sky and Hulu.
The deal brings major franchises under the Disney umbrella, including “The Simpsons,” “Avatar,” and “Modern Family.” Also of note is the fact that Marvel comics characters that Fox had the film rights too, including the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, will now be passed back to the Disney-owned Marvel Studios, meaning that Iron Man, Captain America, and the rest of the Avengers could now team up, or perhaps face-off, against the X-Men.
More worrying is the fact that Disney is growing ever-larger, reducing the amount of competition, and consumer choice. Historically, monopolies haven’t worked out well for the buying public.
The 20th Century Fox studio in Century City will remain with the spinoff Fox company, as we wait to see what happens next. The deal will likely take 18 months to be approved by the government, but redundancies are expected.
How this will effect studios in Culver City is unknown at the moment, although Sony, which still owns Spider-Man and effectively leases the character back to Disney/Marvel Studios for use in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will be looking on with interest. It’s possible that the series of “Spidey-verse” movies that Sony is producing (characters from the Spider-Man universe such as Venom and Black Cat getting their own solo films) will be the only movies featuring Marvel characters that are not now controlled by Marvel Studios / Disney.
