Comcast Will Likely Lose Its Fight With Disney for Fox Despite Comcast's best attempts to outbid Disney for Fox, Fox executives are making it clear they think Fox is a better deal. Emboldened by AT&T's recent merger court victory, Comcast recently made an all-cash, $65 billion offer for Fox's studio and entertainment assets, including Fox's stake in Hulu, numerous regional sports networks, and the FX channel (Fox News and Fox Sports are not included in the deal). But Disney quickly outbid Comcast with a new, $71.3 billion offer, one Fox executives seem inclined toward approving.

Comcast could try to outbid Disney yet again, but Fox makes it clear in a SEC filing (hat tip, Ars Technica ) that Fox execs worry a Comcast, Fox partnership could face long odds at regulatory approval, even under the Trump administration. The Fox board would prefer to merge with Disney because "a strategic transaction with Comcast would be subject to a greater degree of regulatory uncertainty, including the possibility of an outright prohibition and a higher risk of divestitures and delay to closing, as compared to a strategic transaction with Disney," the filing said. The Fox executives are worried that regulators would balk at an even larger Comcast, a company which holds a growing monopoly over broadband, but also a massive media empire thanks to its ownership of numerous regional sports networks and NBC Universal. The deal would give Comcast majority ownership stake in Hulu, company that's long struggled under broadcast industry ownership to provide a competitive streaming challenge to traditional cable services. With the death of net neutrality and FCC authority over ISPs the public would be naive to think Comcast and AT&T wouldn't use this greater size and leverage to engage in proportional anti-competitive behavior. Fox is clearly aware that even the industry-wishlist rubber-stamping Trump administration might find a Comcast/Fox partnership to be a bridge too far. Meanwhile, the DOJ today stated it had already signed off on Disney's proposed acquisition of the Fox assets, making any Comcast victory here all the more unlikely. The DOJ stated it would approve the deal on the condition that Disney sell off the acquired regional sports networks (though one guess who the likely suitor for those assets would likely be). "Disney's proposed acquisition of Fox's assets would combine two of the country's most valuable cable sports properties--Disney's ESPN franchise of networks and Fox's portfolio of Regional Sports Networks ('RSNs')," the complaint said. "This "would eliminate the substantial head-to-head competition that currently exists between Disney and Fox and would likely result in higher prices for cable sports programming in each of the [geographic markets]," the DOJ wrote. Comcast is still rumored to be considering a higher bid, and Fox and Disney shareholders still have to approve the deal. Still, Comcast's odds at landing this deal appear to be getting longer by the day.







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Most recommended from 19 comments

joe1234560

join:2001-01-29

Des Plaines, IL 7 recommendations joe1234560 Member att can buy up the rest of the fox rsn's att can buy up the rest of the fox rsn's

tshirt

Premium Member

join:2004-07-11

Snohomish, WA 5 recommendations tshirt Premium Member it was worth a try... but the price is more than it is worth TODAY, better to spend the money on sky and the fox leftovers Disney may be forced to sell (hulu? comcast was the only one that every liked them, saw the potential) maybe even expand the ISP side while the FCC is feeling lazy.

Anon80199

@sbcglobal.net 3 recommendations Anon80199 Anon RSN spinoff is an opportunity for Charter Charter's largest shareholder, Liberty Media, happens to own the Atlanta Braves. So, I suspect that Charter would have interest in acquiring Fox Sports Southeast (formerly Fox SportsSouth) for the sake of milking the Braves franchise, similar to their infamous SportsNet LA product.