In what appears to be hearsay since news broke that Disney was in talks to acquire 21st Century Fox. This morning, 21st Century Fox announced that it had finalized its restructuring of the parent company, Fox Corporation, and that the acquisition will officially go into effect on March 20th at 12:02 a.m.
It was gathered that starting tomorrow Disney will obtain 21st Century Fox’s movie and TV studios, along with all associated intellectual property. Notably, this means that the House of Mouse has gained the rights to a number of major franchises, including Avatar, Alien, Planet of the Apes, The Simpsons, The X-Files, Die Hard, and Predator. What’s more, it finally brings all of Marvel Comics’ characters back under one roof as X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool will now belong to Marvel Studios.
The deal also includes a number of networks, such as FX Networks, National Geographic, and Fox Sports Regional Networks. Meanwhile, the Murdoch family will retain their broadcast news network with channels like Fox News and Fox Sports. As a result of the merger, Fox Corporation just named former Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to its board of directors.
Reports indicate that up to 4,000 jobs could be lost as Disney makes cuts in redundant positions caused by merging with the century-old film and TV studio.
In order to finalize the transaction which ultimately cost Disney a whopping $71 billion, 21st Century Fox has separated entirely from the Fox Corporation, with the two entities divided into two standalone, publicly traded companies. On Wall Street, the Fox Corp. will continue to be traded under “FOX” and “FOXA”, while 21st Century Fox is now listed under the symbols “TFCFA” and “TFCF”.
