Disney raises the stakes
Disney recently increased their bid to acquire 20th Century Fox, giving them an edge over Comcast.
Disney originally locked in a bid of $52.4 billion for Fox, but after a judge approved the AT&T-Warner deal, Comcast rebutted with a $60 billion offer. After the ruling, the world anticipated a bidding war between media-giant Disney and media-distributor Comcast – and sure enough, they did not disappoint.
The most recent development in the battle for Fox came this week as Disney upped its offer to $71.3 billion. Additionally, an even split of cash and stock will now comprise the deal, in comparison to the original offer which only offered stock.
The deal would put two of the largest media empires under the same roof – according to Business Insider, Disney and Fox are the second and fourth biggest media companies in the world, respectively. Comcast falls between the two in third place.
Obviously, either deal would face an antitrust court case. Comcast-Fox would pose a case a similar to AT&T-Warner, as the merger would create a distributor-creator relationship. Comcast would seemingly have no problem with approval, as AT&T-Warner slid by without any adjustments to the deal. However, Disney might face a tougher case, as a creator-creator merger could provide too much media-creation dominance.
As of now, barring any court decision, Disney seems to have the best chance of acquiring Fox. A higher bid from Comcast would increase their already mountainous amount of debt, which could ultimately lead to the collapse of the company.
Nevertheless, this is an exciting time for antitrust law as mergers and acquisitions continue to increase in 2018. There could be a new media giant in town soon enough.
Featured image via Flickr/Shakir Superville
