The Walt Disney Company has officially purchased 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox Film and Television Studios, along with cable and international TV businesses for $52.4 billion in stock.
The deal includes 20h Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox 2000, 20th Century Fox Television, FX Productions, Fox21, FX Networks, National Geographic Partners, Fox Sports Regional Networks, Fox Networks Group International, Star India, and Fox’s interests in Hulu, Sky, and Endemol Shine Group.
The deal doesn’t include the Fox Broadcasting network and stations, Fox New Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2, and Big Ten Network. These stations will be spun off into a newly-listed company.
For fanboys everywhere, this means the film rights to X-Men and Deadpool will now revert back to Disney-owned Marvel, while the studio also takes ownership of James Cameron’s Avatar franchise, and everything from the Fox network from the X-Files to Empire.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has added another immense entertainment company to his collection, which includes acquiring animation giant Pixar in 2006 or $7.4 billion, Marvel in 2008 for $4 billion, and Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise in 2012 for another $4 billion.
