OT: Disney to buy (most of) 21st Century Fox

[Mdot21]

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/14/disney-to-buy-21st-century-fox-assets.html

$66.1 billion dollar deal. They are buying most of 21st Century Fox's assets and acquiring most of it's debt.

Hooray for monopolies! Hopefully the gov't blocks this merger. There are anti-trust laws on the books for good reason.

[utee94]

I think there are enough competitors in the marketplace for this to avoid being seriously challenged.  

Selfishly, I like it because it most likely brings the rights to the X-Men under Disney's control, so we can finally get some X-Men/Avengers crossover movies.  Giddyup!

[Mdot21]

I think there are enough competitors in the marketplace for this to avoid being seriously challenged.  

Selfishly, I like it because it most likely brings the rights to the X-Men under Disney's control, so we can finally get some X-Men/Avengers crossover movies.  Giddyup!

Enough competitors in the market place? Lol. There are like 3 competitors in the marketplace, if Disney buys them out there will be like 2.
Gov't is trying to block the AT&T and Time Warner merger. I'll bet they try to block this one too. At least I hope they do. They failed miserably under the previous administration when Comcast bought NBCUniversal.
Marvel could easily just buy back the film rights from 21st Century Fox without Disney having to acquire most of that entire company. And it'd be a heck of a lot cheaper than 66.1 billion dollars.

[Entropy]

The simpson's have been spot on lately.... first predicting Trump, now predicting this..

[utee94]

For movie studios, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Sony, Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. were all separate last time I checked into any of this.  So there'd be 5 instead of 6.  That's certainly a change to the Herfindahl index, but there are plenty of industries with that few players that don't invite government interference.

And no, I'm not suggesting Disney buy Fox solely for the rights to the X-Men.  It actually seems they're most interested in the TV and TV distribution aspects of Fox.  I'm just selfishly interested in the possibility of seeing X-Men and Avengers together, that would be awesome.

[MarqHusker]

What's the anti-trust argument going to be on this?   Over distribution, or content?  Or both?   I think certain people (and administrations) look at anti-trust matters through a snapshot in time, w/o regard to the future.   The lens they apply their analysis through is stunted.      We all realize that movie attendance is at a 25 year low, right?  "over the top" media is growing like gangbusters.   From a 'studio release' standpoint,  even combining #s, that marginally outpaces either Universal or Sony in terms of annual releases over the past 1, 3, 5 yr periods.  I'm not seeing the case against this kind of a merger.
 

I love bringing up the FTC's attempts to block Whole Foods from acquiring Wild Oats.  Of course now, a decade later this is patently hilarious to everybody, but back then,  the government, and other interest groups were serious.   It was going to be organic food monopoly of the worst kind.   Nevermind Whole Foods controlled less than 2% of grocery sales, and they weren't the only places offering organic food.

[Brutus Buckeye]

Disney is pretty schlock. 

Bland, safe movies written and produced by 1,000s of corporate stiffs.

[Mdot21]

Disney is pretty schlock.

Bland, safe movies written and produced by 1,000s of corporate stiffs.

yeah, kinda with you.
they pretty much ruined Star Wars with that blah JJ Abrams Force Awakens sequel. Sounds like this next one just brings more questions and fewer answers.
I feel like those Marvel movies were better before Disney bought Marvel. Honestly, kinda feel like Robert Downey Jr carried all those movies. Like there was almost no point in seeing them if not for him. He's really just that gifted of an actor that he can make anything interesting. I even finished watching that terrible movie Due Date because of him.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Well, at least the Fox network, FS1/FS2, and BTN will be kept out of Disney's hands--they're being spun off into a separate company.

Disney [as owners of ESPN] would have potentially caused a major problem in monopolizing sports content if they'd gotten their hands on those. 

[847badgerfan]

Doesn't BTN ownership revert to 100 percent Big Ten ownership in 2025 or something? I thought I read that a while back.

[utee94]

Well, at least the Fox network, FS1/FS2, and BTN will be kept out of Disney's hands--they're being spun off into a separate company.

Disney [as owners of ESPN] would have potentially caused a major problem in monopolizing sports content if they'd gotten their hands on those.

Yeah, completely agree with you on this. I was glad to see that those particular Fox properties weren't included.  

[jhetfield99]

That sounds familiar to me too. 

I was nervous about this purchase until I was able to confirm BTN wasn't part of the deal.

[ELA]

I guess this is a place for Disney/ABC news

ESPN President John Skipper stepping down due to substance abuse issues

http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/21804776/john-skipper-resigns-espn-president

[TyphonInc]

Doesn't BTN ownership revert to 100 percent Big Ten ownership in 2025 or something? I thought I read that a while back.

I think the BTN has the option to buy back the %50 FOX invested in, they just don't get ownership willy nilly.