Shareholders from Disney and 21st Century Fox voted to approve Disney’s $71.3 billion offer to purchase Fox’s major film and television studios today (July 27), a blockbuster deal which has been months in the making.
The two companies had all but completed a deal last December, when Comcast submitted an 11th-hour offer to purchase the Rupert Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox. Disney upped its offer to $71.3 billion, Comcast relented, and the shareholders approved the acquisition price this morning.
For Murdoch, the deal should provide a nice payout. The agreed-upon price is nearly 50% higher than the original $52.4 billion deal the companies agreed to in December.
With the acquisition of Fox’s pop-culture icons like The Simpsons and X-Men, its film and TV studios, cable networks like FX and National Geographic, Disney is set up to populate its own forthcoming streaming service with high-quality content that can compete with the growing dominance of Netflix.
The merger is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.