NEW YORK (AP) — Comcast is dropping its bid for Fox’s entertainment businesses, paving the way for Disney to boost its upcoming streaming service by buying the studios behind “The Simpsons” and X-Men.
Comcast can now focus on its pursuit of European pay-TV operator Sky, a deal that would give the Philadelphia-based cable and media company a larger presence outside the U.S.
The moves come as the media landscape is shifting dramatically. Cable and telecom companies are buying content makers to compete with popular streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon. AT&T bought Time Warner last month for $81 billion.
Comcast had been dueling with Disney for Twenty-First Century Fox, but Comcast said Thursday that it would not raise its $66 billion offer for Fox. The Walt Disney Co. had topped Comcast’s bid by offering $71 billion.
The U.S. Department of Justice has approved Disney’s bid as long as Disney, which owns the national sports network ESPN, sells Fox’s 22 regional sports networks. Fox shareholders are set to vote on Disney’s offer July 27.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said he was “extremely pleased” with Comcast’s announcement.
“Our focus now is on completing the regulatory process and ultimately moving toward integrating our businesses,” he said in a statement.
If the deal closes, Disney would get a controlling stake in streaming service Hulu and Twentieth Century Fox film and TV studios. Disney owns Marvel Studios, but some characters including the X-Men had already been licensed to Fox. A sale means the X-Men and the Avengers could reunite in future movies. With Fox, Disney would also have a larger library of movies and shows for a streaming service set to debut next year.
“This was the final chapter in this soap opera,” GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives said.
Ives said Comcast’s focus now is on getting Sky “to build a strong beachhead content strategy in Europe.”
Sky operates in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the U.K. It has 22.5 million customers, attracted by offerings such as English Premier League soccer and “Game of Thrones.”
Fox has been trying to buy the 61 percent of Sky it doesn’t already own. The idea was to sell Sky to Disney as part of the broader deal. Last week, Comcast made a bid that values Sky at $34 billion, compared with $32.5 billion in Fox’s offer.
Disney said in a regulatory filing last week that Fox might not raise its bid to compete with Comcast’s offer, meaning Comcast is likely to end up with Sky and Disney the rest of Fox that’s up for sale. That includes other international properties, including the Star India satellite service. Some Fox businesses, including Fox News Channel and the Fox television network, will remain with media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his family.
And Rupert won’t get Sky. Ever.
Phew.
That sounds suspiciously quid pro quo-like.
Would it violate anti-trust laws if Disney and Comcast co-ordinated their purchases so as not to compete with one another for Fox and Sky respectively?