Chapter 936: Major Acquisition
In early August, a blockbuster acquisition in the American entertainment media industry was finally announced.
On August 4, U.S. time, The Walt Disney Company announced that it would acquire the Twenty-First Century Fox Group after divesting some of its businesses for US$45 billion.
According to information obtained by the media, Disney will also assume approximately US$10.5 billion in debt for Fox, so the total transaction price this time will be as high as US$55.5 billion!
Twenty-first Century Fox's businesses acquired by Disney include -
Twentieth Century Fox's film and television program production divisions, entertainment content cable networks, and international television businesses; IPs such as Avatar and The Simpsons, and platforms such as FX cable networks and National Geographic will all be brought under Disney's ownership...
There is also Fox’s stake in Hulu, which is targeting Netflix, India’s Star TV, etc…
Disney said the acquisition will significantly enhance its ability to provide content and entertainment options to consumers around the world.
At the same time, some businesses of the Twenty-First Century Fox Group will be divested and will not be sold.
Among them are the Fox Broadcasting Network, Fox News and Business Channel, and the sports information website Big Ten Network. These businesses will be acquired by existing shareholders of the 21st Century Fox Group such as the Murdoch family.
Tribune Media Group has been acquired by Sinclair Group.
The above businesses all directly overlap with Disney's existing ABC broadcast network and ESPN sports.
In addition, Sky TV, which is wholly owned by Twenty-First Century Fox, is currently on the shelves, and many media groups are already bidding for it.
According to the agreement reached between Disney and 21st Century Fox Group, the transaction will be carried out in the form of a share exchange. Each share of Fox shareholders will be exchanged for 0.2735 Disney shares. This price is determined based on Disney's stock price in the last 30 days.
In addition, Disney will assume Fox's $10.3 billion in debt.
After Disney acquires Fox, the seven major Hollywood companies will become six - the other five being Marvel-MGM, NBCUniversal, Time Warner, Sony Columbia and Viacom Paramount.
After the merger of Disney and 21st Century Fox, it became a giant among them.
In fact, in the original time and space, the "Eavesdropping Gate" broke out much later. After that, the strength of Sky TV did not decline because of the emergence of Barron and the seizure of part of the Premier League broadcast rights...
Therefore, the British government has been delaying Murdoch's intention to acquire another 61% of Sky TV shares. Later, Fox lost to Comcast Group in the bidding for this part of the shares.
But now, although Murdoch is still in trouble with the "Eavesdropping Gate", it can be regarded as a blessing in disguise. In their later acquisition of Sky TV, because the strength of this TV station was weakened, the British government and Barron's did not carry out the acquisition. Much interference led to Twenty-First Century Fox completing the acquisition of Sky TV for US$15 billion.
When 21st Century Fox was willing to put Sky TV on the shelves, Comcast Group began to pursue the TV station again.
Comcast's $28 billion bid was the highest among several media groups that had made bids for Sky.
Just when everyone thought that Comcast Group would finally get what it wanted this time and acquire Sky TV, a threatening competitor appeared...
On August 5, IC Capital CEO Ivanta announced that they would also join the fight for Sky TV and had submitted an acquisition bid to Twenty-First Century Fox - their offer for Sky TV was 28.5 billion dollars, higher than Comcast Group’s previous offer.
This time, the attention of the media and the public has once again focused on the acquisition of Sky TV. After all, two American companies are "fighting" for a European TV station. I am afraid no one will want to miss this kind of excitement.
In response to the sudden addition of IC Capital, the chairman of Comcast Group once said bluntly:
"IC Capital is a spoiler. They are an investment company and will not help the development of Sky TV in any way..."
In response to this, Ivanta also fought back in an interview:
"We are the majority shareholder of Sinclair Group, the second largest television network in the United States. We also have experience in operating television stations and have financial advantages. As for Comcast, they are too old and those old experiences are not It’s suitable for the current development of TV stations…”
In any case, this kind of back-and-forth talk can only be a competition of volume. In the end, the decisive factor is their bid. At present, IC Capital has an advantage in bidding. Comcast Group faces IC Capital 285 Whether we should follow up on the bid of US$100 million... still needs to be discussed.
To this end, Comcast Group convened a board meeting to vote on the acquisition of Sky TV.
As for the seller, Twenty-First Century Fox, they have now decided to sell the business, so the most important thing is naturally the final bid - the one with the highest price will get it.
It is said that News Corporation was still hesitant to sell Sky TV, even if Comcast Group offered a good price - they also planned to retain Sky TV.
However, since June this year, Murdoch has been involved in a divorce lawsuit with Wendy Deng.
This incident also hit the 82-year-old Murdoch hard, and he finally decided to sell most of the 21st Century Fox Group's assets.
In the eyes of the public, this incident happened a little suddenly...
On June 13, Murdoch filed for divorce in the Manhattan Court of New York, USA, requesting a divorce from his third wife Wendy Deng - and in less than two weeks, it will be their 14th wedding anniversary.
As soon as the news came out, it immediately became the headline news of the entertainment section of major media around the world.
The couple's sensational yacht wedding in New York is still vivid in people's minds: Wendy Deng held a white bouquet of flowers and sweetly leaned on Murdoch, while Murdoch happily held her waist...
The next day, Murdoch's spokesman Steven Rubenstein confirmed the media that Murdoch had filed for divorce, and revealed that a sentence in the application document was: "The relationship between Murdoch and Wendy Deng has been irretrievably broken."
Although negative news about their marriage has been reported from time to time, when the public recalls that News Corporation was deeply involved in the "wiretapping scandal" in Britain, Murdoch was attacked by a comedian when he attended a hearing in the British Parliament, and Wendy Deng bravely protected her husband and slapped the attacker... This made the divorce incident unexpected.
People still remember the touching scene of Wendy Deng holding Murdoch's hand in the car after attending the hearing. They never thought that their marriage would fall into the "irreparable" situation today.
What is even more exaggerated is that Murdoch's sudden request for divorce not only surprised bystanders, but also the person involved, Wendy Deng, who said that she was kept in the dark and had no foreseeing about it.
After this incident was exposed, it was rumored that Wendy Deng was turned away when she tried to meet with Murdoch. She said that she needed to discuss it, but Murdoch refused to meet and flatly announced: everything is over.
According to a friend of Wendy Deng who revealed to the media, even Wendy Deng herself learned the truth about the divorce afterwards:
"She (Wendy Deng) told me that she had no idea that they would divorce. She did not deny that there was no major conflict between the two, but she did not expect Rupert to make the problem public and directly declare that this marriage was a huge mistake."
It can be imagined that the couple who were still sweet and loving just a moment ago were suddenly told of divorce the next moment. The emotional contrast is so great that it is really hard to accept.
