Yesterday, 21st Century Fox accepted a $71.3B offer from Disney after back-and-forth bidding between Comcast and Disney.
Disney shelled out $18.9B more than its original offer in the hopes of ending this bidding war — and reclaiming its tiara from entertainment’s recently crowned princess, Netflix. But Comcast could still make a counteroffer…
Last week the ’Cast swooped in on Disney’s original December offer with an increased $65B bid. Both companies want Fox’s content (movies, TV shows, and channels) to compete with tech companies investing oodles of cash in original content.
So despite the fanfare, this battle is really just a preview for the main event: a showdown with Netflix — which recently eclipsed both Comcast and Disney in value — for video entertainment’s title.
Fox called Disney’s proposal “superior” to Comcast’s — and Disney claims its horizontal merger (two media companies) has an advantage over Comcast’s vertical merger (a distributor and a media company).
But AT&T’s union with Time Warner was a huge win for vertical mergers, positioning Comcast to make an even higher offer — and some analysts are convinced it could top $80B.
Tune in next week for the next episode of “It’s Always Sunny for Rupert.”