After months of waiting and speculating it now looks Disney will get the film and television rights for 21st Century Fox. As Comcast has officially withdrew their bid.
Today Comcast released this statement,
Comcast does not intend to pursue further the acquisition of the Twenty-First Century Fox assets and, instead, will focus on our recommended offer for Sky.
This now means Disney’s previously agreed upon acquisition for 21st Century Fox will be completed as planned, however for substantially more money than was initially announced in December 2017, as the bidding war saw Disney raise their offer from $52.4 billion to $71.3 billion instead.
But Comcast forcing Disney to raise their overall offer in response to Comcast’s all-cash bid, may end up backfiring for Comcast, as Fox is in the middle of trying to acquire the remaining 61% of SKY that it does not currently own. But to worsen the situation for Comcast, UK Regulators have given approval for Disney to acquire Fox and subsequently SKY as part of the deal.
Therefore, Comcast are left pursuing SKY by increasing their individual bid to $34 billion for that one company. Which means that if Disney are successful over Comcast, Disney would be in a much better position to negotiate with Comcast over a potential sale of SKY in the future.
The Disney-Fox Deal should be formalized in a Shareholders meeting to take place on July 27, 2018.
