Post: #1

How do you guys feel about this deal? I personally think it's very bad...less competition is always bad.

Walt Disney buys Murdoch's Fox for $52bn

Quote:Walt Disney has agreed to buy the bulk of 21st Century Fox's business for $52.4bn (£39bn), in a deal both companies said position them to compete in the rapidly changing media industry.

The purchase includes Fox's film and television studios, as well as its 39% stake in satellite broadcaster Sky.

Fox will form a news-focused company with its remaining assets.

The move is a sharp shift for 86-year-old Fox owner Rupert Murdoch after more than half a century of media expansion.

Mr Murdoch turned a single Australian newspaper he inherited from his father at the age of 21 into one of the world's largest news and film empires.

He said the break-up makes sense amid new threats from online advertising and competitors who are streaming entertainment into homes via the internet.

Fox shareholders, who include the Murdochs, will get a 25% stake in the larger Disney.

"With today's announcement, we launch the next great leg of our journey," Rupert Murdoch said on Thursday in a call for investors.

He added later: "Are we retreating? Absolutely not."

What is Disney buying?

Disney will scoop up Fox's movie and television studios, regional sports network and international holdings, among other investments.

The move adds to Disney's back catalogue high-grossing films such as the original Star Wars movies, the Marvel superhero pictures, Avatar and Deadpool, as well as TV hits such as Modern Family and The Simpsons.

It expands Disney's offerings with the FX and National Geographic cable channels, and Fox's regional sports network in the US.

The purchase also extends Disney's global reach, adding media company Star India and Fox's interests in Sky plc and Tata Sky to its portfolio.

Disney will also get majority control of the video streaming service Hulu, which is also partially owned by Comcast and Time Warner.

Disney will assume $13.7bn in Fox debt as part of the stock deal, taking the total value of the transaction to more than $66bn.

Why does Disney want them?

Disney already owns a vast array of news, film and leisure companies. But the media landscape is changing as technology companies like Amazon and Netflix attract customers to new ways of viewing.

Disney is investing heavily in online streaming platforms, as a way to counter a downturn in its pay-TV business and threats from these new rivals.



The firm believes this deal will give it the scale to compete, and expects to wring "at least" $2bn in cost-savings out of the new company to boot.

David Yelland, former editor of the Murdoch owned Sun newspaper in the UK, told the BBC the transaction puts Disney in pole position to compete with California's tech giants.

"In ten years time there'll be two Chinese giants and four US giants and [of the current entertainment companies] the only one that'll survive will be Disney."

What is Fox keeping?

Fox is creating a smaller firm focused on news and major live sports events in the US.

It will hold onto its flagship Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Sports, Fox Television Stations Group, and sports cable networks FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes and Big Ten Network.

Lachlan Murdoch said: "While the merged business is about scale, the new Fox is about returning to our roots as a lean, aggressive, challenger brand."

There has been speculation the deal opens the opportunity to reunite Fox with the news businesses which were spun-off in 2013 following a scandal over phone tapping in the UK.

That prompted the creation of a separate news publishing group, News Corp., which owns the Times and the Sun newspapers and remains controlled by the Murdochs.

Rupert Murdoch said the firm hasn't looked at that possibility and any move along those lines is "way ahead" in the future.

As part of the deal Fox shareholders will receive Disney stock, representing about 25% of the enlarged company.
What does it mean for Sky?

In the UK, Fox is in the midst of a bid to buy the part of the broadcaster Sky that it doesn't already own. That bid is being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is due to publish provisional findings in January.

The BBC understands that the Disney deal will not alter that CMA investigation.

If the Sky purchase is approved, that deal would probably go through before the Disney purchase of Fox assets. So the whole of Sky would then be likely to transfer to Disney's ownership.

If not, then just the 39% of Sky currently in Fox's stable passes to Disney.

Rupert Murdoch said: "If things go wrong, the existing [Sky] shares go to Disney. It will be up to them to decide what to do."

Either way Sky's future will lie primarily in Disney's hands.



What about the Murdochs themselves?

Most observers expected Rupert Murdoch to hand over his vast media empire to his two sons James and Lachlan.

So the decision to break it up came as something of a surprise.

The management of the new Fox company is still being discussed. But Rupert Murdoch told Sky he hopes his elder son, Lachlan, will become chief executive.

James has been widely tipped to take on a senior role at Disney.

On Thursday, Disney boss Bob Iger, who is staying in his role running Disney until the end of 2021, said James will be involved in the integration of the two firms.

As for the future he said: "He and I will continue to discuss whether there's a role for him here or not, but I look forward to talking to him about it."

Will this make it past the regulators?

The companies said they expect to complete the transaction in 12 to 18 months.

But it is not clear how the deal - which increases consolidation in the movie and sports media industries - will be received by US competition regulators.

The US Department of Justice recently sued to block AT&T's $85.4bn deal to buy Time Warner, on the basis that it will raise prices for consumers and competitors.

It is possible officials would take a similarly dim view of a Disney-Fox tie up, in which case Disney would pay Fox a $2.5bn break-up fee.

The Writers Guild of America West, a union that represents writers for television and movies, said it opposes the deal on the grounds that it would increase Disney's already sizeable power.

It said: "The antitrust concerns raised by this deal are obvious and significant."

Post: #2

Can't fault him for banking out. The film studios haven't been performing well and the TV networks are getting stale. Fox didn't have any standout hit this season and going out to July, the only movie that sticks out is the Deadpool sequel. Even the once powerful Fox News is getting beat by Rachel Maddow! He clearly doesn't want, at 86, to turn things around.

Anyone know where his kids' politics stand? Are we likely to see a SJW shift at Fox News?

Post: #3

^^^

Apparently Lachlan gave money to Hillary and was "more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton." That doesn't sound good.

Post: #4

Fox news is not included in the deal. Murdoch will keep his propaganda empire(WSJ-Foxnews and sports etc) but selling the entertainment-film studio.

This deal had to be done for Disney to take on Netflix and Amazon. Disney decided months ago that starting 2019 it will no longer license its content to netflix. Netflix responded by announcing a massive content splurge. Its doubling down on its original content and will finance more films next year than 4 studios combined(albeit with a lower budget per film). In order for Disney to take on Netflix they need a better streaming service at a monthly price. By acquiring fox not only is netflix shit out of luck at showing Star Wars, Marvel films(avengers), Pixar(animation) but will now never get the chance to license the new Avatar films, Planet of the apes, X-Men and w/e else fox has the rights to.

This deal also puts Disney with a majority stake in Hulu. They will likely spend next year integrating 3 streaming services, Disney animation and films(for family friendly content), Hulu+fox as a premium on demand service similar to netflix and espn.
They will also probably not do any deals with google(youtube) for their live tv service.

This is was probably the worst day for the tech companies in the last 3 years as they have been desperately trying to promote their native video services.

Post: #5

Just one more step to (((their))) propaganda domination.

Post: #6

As far as consumers this will probably suck, we all know how Disney loves to keep their prices at least double the price of others. Surely they will at least make their streaming service price competitive, but then again this is Disney we are talking about and they believe their shit is always premium grade.

Post: #7

Seems like Fox News won't be conservative anymore.

Post: #8

(12-15-2017 03:13 AM)8ball Wrote:  Fox news is not included in the deal. Murdoch will keep his propaganda empire(WSJ-Foxnews and sports etc) but selling the entertainment-film studio.

This is the small silver lining in the story.

Post: #9

If Fox does a special report on "strong independent females" in a children's movie, I'll know they've been cannibalized by the Lords of the Underworld.

Post: #10

(12-15-2017 03:13 AM)8ball Wrote:  Fox news is not included in the deal. Murdoch will keep his propaganda empire(WSJ-Foxnews and sports etc) but selling the entertainment-film studio.
This deal had to be done for Disney to take on Netflix and Amazon. Disney decided months ago that starting 2019 it will no longer license its content to netflix. Netflix responded by announcing a massive content splurge. Its doubling down on its original content and will finance more films next year than 4 studios combined(albeit with a lower budget per film). In order for Disney to take on Netflix they need a better streaming service at a monthly price. By acquiring fox not only is netflix shit out of luck at showing Star Wars, Marvel films(avengers), Pixar(animation) but will now never get the chance to license the new Avatar films, Planet of the apes, X-Men and w/e else fox has the rights to.
This deal also puts Disney with a majority stake in Hulu. They will likely spend next year integrating 3 streaming services, Disney animation and films(for family friendly content), Hulu+fox as a premium on demand service similar to netflix and espn.
They will also probably not do any deals with google(youtube) for their live tv service.
This is was probably the worst day for the tech companies in the last 3 years as they have been desperately trying to promote their native video services.

If I HAVE to see a Disney movie... I will rent it from Redbox for $1.50... or stream it free off the Internet.

Netflix on the other hand... I will gladly pay up to $15-20 a month for that service. I believe most consumers agree with me on this.

Post: #11

This doesn't bode well for any future Aliens or Predator films.

Post: #12

(12-15-2017 11:47 AM)EndsExpect Wrote:  

(12-15-2017 03:13 AM)8ball Wrote:  Fox news is not included in the deal. Murdoch will keep his propaganda empire(WSJ-Foxnews and sports etc) but selling the entertainment-film studio.
This deal had to be done for Disney to take on Netflix and Amazon. Disney decided months ago that starting 2019 it will no longer license its content to netflix. Netflix responded by announcing a massive content splurge. Its doubling down on its original content and will finance more films next year than 4 studios combined(albeit with a lower budget per film). In order for Disney to take on Netflix they need a better streaming service at a monthly price. By acquiring fox not only is netflix shit out of luck at showing Star Wars, Marvel films(avengers), Pixar(animation) but will now never get the chance to license the new Avatar films, Planet of the apes, X-Men and w/e else fox has the rights to.
This deal also puts Disney with a majority stake in Hulu. They will likely spend next year integrating 3 streaming services, Disney animation and films(for family friendly content), Hulu+fox as a premium on demand service similar to netflix and espn.
They will also probably not do any deals with google(youtube) for their live tv service.
This is was probably the worst day for the tech companies in the last 3 years as they have been desperately trying to promote their native video services.

If I HAVE to see a Disney movie... I will rent it from Redbox for $1.50... or stream it free off the Internet.

Netflix on the other hand... I will gladly pay up to $15-20 a month for that service. I believe most consumers agree with me on this.

This is exactly why the buy up assets. I would be willing to bet you've watched a Disney owned movie. They own a lot of properties in that field I once tried to count how many they have and given all the subsidiaries of their own subsidiaries you lose track very fast.

The more they buy the more they got all the entertainment field covered. A company not sure where to go next or still how to deal with things like Netflix or other internet rivals (even google now with some things youtube is coming out with). So if you have billions in assets and can leverage that for billions more its better to buy as much as you can hope something hits and becomes a solid play that will eventually pay out the cost of the larger buy out.

This is the way of big companies they can't innovate so they buy up ones that can and do roll them into their system bleed it dry then move on. Eventually we will have so much star-wars people won't give a shit any more where before it was once ever 20 years. I am already sick of all the marvel stuff, this is how Disney operates. Don't be surprised about a huge explosion in Simpsons swag and movies.

This is bad for competition for sure. That being said I am an investor far this very reason, owning Disney is like owning an entertainment index fund.

Post: #13

(12-15-2017 12:00 PM)spokepoker Wrote:  This doesn't bode well for any future Aliens or Predator films.

Neither of those franchises ever made a good film after 1990.
Both of them should have stopped relasing sequels/remakes after part 2.

Post: #14

(12-15-2017 11:47 AM)EndsExpect Wrote:  If I HAVE to see a Disney movie... I will rent it from Redbox for $1.50... or stream it free off the Internet.

Netflix on the other hand... I will gladly pay up to $15-20 a month for that service. I believe most consumers agree with me on this.

You will feel very different once its library quickly disappears. Its only a matter of time before the rest of the distributors start their own netflix.

Comcast(nbc universal) - Netflix will lose jurasic park - fast and furious and more including all the old NBC sitcoms(friends seinfield, yes people still watch those)
At&t(soon) time warner - netflix loses all warner bros content - Lord of the rings - Justice League - Mad Max etc
Viacom(paramount) - Transformers and and a library that goes back 100 years. also the largest shareholder family of viacom is also the largest shareholder of CBS.

The bottom line is Neflix original library might be enough to continue as a premium cable service like Showtimes or perhaps even HBO(doubt it) but if you remove the role of the middle man, Netflix loses 80% of its business.

Post: #15

(12-15-2017 12:00 PM)spokepoker Wrote:  This doesn't bode well for any future Aliens or Predator films.

Well, on the positive side, there could have only been 15 or 20 more of these anyway, so it's not that big a loss.

Post: #16

Fox Studios are literally run by former Mossad. So, moving them to Disney doesn't really change much. Fans of the Marvel characters owned by Fox will be happy to see them back at Marvel.

But I don't like the idea of the Fox Network channels getting sold to Disney, where they will be folded into the ABC umbrella.

I do not like the move of the sports networks to Disney. ESPN is SJW central. Fox sports was just liberal leaning blowhards like Cowherd. Expect the Fox networks to be quickly replaced by SJWs and slowly eliminated.

Hopefully the Trump antitrust Department, staffed by swamp dwellers as it is, will step in and block the sale of the sports and TV networks.

Post: #17

Less competition isn't always bad.

I don't know about this specific deal, but never believe broad statements like that.

Post: #18

This whole process of selling was really brought about following the shake up in Saudi Arabia, Murdoch was confident in their holdings to continue on, but once they loss Saudi backing the other shareholders were pushing them to sell the media content while it was at "peak value", and to focus on Fox News.

Follow the timeline, any mention of Fox going up for sale followed the Saudi crackdown.

This keeps Iger out of any political ambitions until post 2021, one of Murdoch's sons will be a head Disney honcho. Disney now has an even bigger (and more diverse) library to launch their streaming service catered for ages 1-92, alongside an ESPN streaming service with all the Fox regional sports networks.

Post: #19

(12-15-2017 12:00 PM)spokepoker Wrote:  This doesn't bode well for any future Aliens or Predator films.

There shouldn't be any more of those films. . .especially Aliens. . .Ridley scott needs to retire.

Post: #20

NYSE:DIS - BUY & HOLD

$111.27USD 2017-12-15

Will check this thread 2018-12-15

Post: #21

It would be nice if our elected representatives had any miniscule understanding of technology and the kind of threat this degree of monopolization poses when all of these companies control the internet and all major forms of media.

Restoring Copyright to something closer to its original terms would also do wonders for stopping The Mouse from taking over the world.

Post: #22

(12-16-2017 01:47 AM)demolition Wrote:  It would be nice if our elected representatives had any miniscule understanding of technology and the kind of threat this degree of monopolization poses when all of these companies control the internet and all major forms of media.

Restoring Copyright to something closer to its original terms would also do wonders for stopping The Mouse from taking over the world.

No one makes anyone do anything.

You and everyone else choose to watch tv/film and surf the net. Or not to.

Focus on eating good food, smoking some good dope, or playing with your chick tits.

It all just business. Just invest and tune out the bullshit.

And tomorrow, I will be going to see STAR WARS.

Post: #23

The problem is that the west is no longer the prime theatrical demographic. It's China. And China has an even worse track-record as far as having low-standards in their entertainment. That's why you keep getting Transformers movies even though the RT scores might only be in the single digits. Explosions sell.

Post: #24

(12-16-2017 02:00 PM)questor70 Wrote:  The problem is that the west is no longer the prime theatrical demographic. It's China. And China has an even worse track-record as far as having low-standards in their entertainment. That's why you keep getting Transformers movies even though the RT scores might only be in the single digits. Explosions sell.

There is another factor. Companies don't have to do nearly as much work to translate action movies. Action is still action, no matter what the language is. Of course, this works for every movie market--Japan, Korea, Europe, Mexico, India. Action is still action.

Post: #25

It's actually a very interesting time in the entertainment business. While the big studios may be merging, there is a lot of work of higher and higher quality being made by small, independent producers and film makers. I did a little extra work on a movie for free, and the brothers who did it told me their budget was about $50,000. This was a full-length feature, and it looked just as professional as anything out of a big studio. I also saw another film this year that looked just as good.

This is the future, guys. It's not with Disney or Fox. It's with the little "studios" who are doing really cool stuff.