Yesterday, 21st Century Fox announced that it had set a new date of July 27 for a special meeting of its stockholders to consider the sale of its film and television assets to The Walt Disney Co.
Somewhere, Marvel head honcho, Kevin Feige is rubbing his hands getting ready to welcome The X-Men and Fantastic Four to the MCU.
According to Deadline, who reported the announcement along with The Wrap and Variety, Fox’s board today recommended that its shareholders vote in favor of the upgraded $71.3 billion offer from Disney. This comes on the heels of Disney winning U.S. antitrust approval. In accordance with the Justice Department’s approval, Disney agreed to dissolve Fox’s 22 regional sports networks.
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Disney boosted its bid for the home of The Simpsons and the Alien and Planet of the Apes franchises last week, offering $19 billion more than their original bid last December. The bid is also remarkable in that it is close to 10% ahead of the $65 billion one Comcast submitted. The original date for the shareholder vote was July 10, but after the Comcast bid, shareholders required more time to review the offer.
Prior to DOJ approval, the Wall Street Journal reported that Comcast was looking to partner with other companies or private-equity investors that could provide additional cash to sweeten its bid. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Fox stated that part of its reasoning to accept Disney’s $71.3 billion offer over Comcast’s $65 billion offer was due to regulatory concerns.
According to The Wrap, the U.S. cable giant is reportedly scrambling to line up funding to top that Fox said on Thursday that it has rescheduled a shareholder meeting to vote on Disney’s $71.3 billion proposal for July 27.
The company said that under the agreement with Disney, it could still postpone or adjourn the July 27 meeting in the event something occurs that Fox deems “reasonably likely to require under applicable law the filing or mailing of any supplemental or amended disclosure.”
In layman’s terms, if Comcast were to come back again with an increased counter offer that Fox would be obligated to consider, the company could delay the meeting again.
Again, somewhere Kevin Feige is trying on a Wolverine mask.
SOURCE: Deadline, The Wrap, The Wall Street Journal
