The rumor has been running for weeks, it’s now official: Disney, the ogre of the Seventh Art, is devouring the Fox.
The Hollywood industry had discovered during the first week of November 2017 that Disney had first tried to buy Fox, owned by Ruppert Murdoch, before the two parties interrupted the negotiations momentarily. We then indicated that they had every chance to resume (which had not failed to cause us some mocking comments), and that’s what happened.
The mouse has just worked the fox. For $ 52.4 billion, the studio acquired the majority of the assets of 21st Century Fox, and bought back its debt to the tune of 13, 7 billion. At this price, Mickey is buying the Fox studio and its catalog, the channel FX, Fox Searchlight, Fox 2000, while the media such as The Sun, the Wall Street Journal or the Times remain in the wallet of Murdoch, just like Fox News, and should be reunited under a new banner.
Bob Iger, current boss of Disney, should extend his presidency until 2021, to preserve the absorption of the assets of Fox, whose “digestion” could spread over 18 months. This strategic choice has of course to do with Disney’s desire to reposition itself on streaming, in order to compete with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, rather than depend on their platforms.
Indeed, the colossus must launch its own SVOD service in 2018, and will logically need the widest possible catalog to make it attractive and hope to impose quickly on the market. The takeover, which will take place in securities and will still have to be validated by the US government makes Disney the owner of the majority of the most lucrative licenses currently, while the company is about to bring back all of its super characters. heroic under Marvel banner.
This concentration of power could result in a lasting reshaping of the Hollywood market, which would then be structured around three giants: Warner, Universal and Disney.