Comcast announced a $65 billion offer to buy Twenty-First Century Fox from media mogul Rupert Murdoch and family beating an offer from Walt Disney — with its 20 percent higher offer.
ALSO READ: Comcast CEO Brian Roberts letter to Rupert Murdoch
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said he is highly confident regulators would allow Comcast to acquire most of Fox’s media assets after a US court allowed wireless major AT&T to buy Time Warner in a deal valued at $85 billion.
The increased demand for the acquisition of media assets indicates that telecom and cable Internet companies are considering content as the king in the game to attract high value customers. Comcast will also be becoming a major threat to AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc. in the wireless space.
Fox’s board — led by Rupert Murdoch who built Fox into a global media empire — will select the best offer and present it before shareholders. Disney chief executive officer Robert Iger is yet to frame his strategies to counter Comcast. Comcast’s Brian Roberts had led a failed bid for Disney in 2004.
The Murdoch family, Fox’s largest shareholder, owns a 17-percent stake and would face a multi-billion dollar capital gains tax bill by accepting an all-cash offer from Comcast, Reuters reported earlier.
Fox shareholders will vote on July 10 on the Disney transaction but the company could postpone the meeting, Fox said in a statement.
HIGHLIGHTS
Comcast offers $35 per Fox share
Disney offers $29.18 per share
Comcast offers $2.5 billion reverse termination fee, the same as Disney.
Comcast offers Fox’s $1.525 bn breakup fee owed Disney, if Fox went with Comcast
Analysts see difficulties for Comcast-Fox, which would add Fox’s movie and television studios to Comcast’s NBC Universal. Brian Roberts said in a letter on Wednesday to Fox that he would offer the same conditions as Disney and promised to fight for the deal in court if necessary.
Comcast aims to combine distribution and production to compete with technology driven Netflix or Alphabet Inc’s Google or Amazon. These technology firms produce content, sell it online directly to consumers and offer targeted advertising.
Fox and Comcast will have media brands such as the X-Men superheroes. A combined company would hold the rights to air Fox’s TV show “The Simpsons”, the U.S. rights to the Olympics and Premier League Soccer.
Both Disney and Comcast are looking for Fox’s international assets such as Star India as part of their global strategy to expand presence.
Major sports and news assets including Fox News, Fox Business Network and Fox Sports would be spun off into a separate company.
Comcast said it will pursue its $30 billion acquisition of Sky in parallel with its Fox bid. Comcast bid for Sky in April, after Fox’s bid for the remainder of European pay-TV group it did not already own was delayed by regulators.
