Disney acquires 21st Century Fox for $52 billion

Alongside Fox's character and franchise assets, Disney will acquire FX and National Geographic.

Disney have acquired the rights and assets of 21st Century Fox in a historic deal that could change the entertainment landscape forever.

Since November there have been reports of Disney being in talks with 21st Century Fox to acquire the multimedia network’s most successful movie and TV franchises including ‘Avatar’, ‘X-Men’ and ‘The Simpsons’.

For Marvel fans, this opens up opportunities to introduce Fantastic Four, Deadpool as well as the other X-Men into the already massive MCU.

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Read more: Watch new ‘Deadpool 2’ teaser featuring a Bob Ross spoof

The Walt Disney Company have now said that they have reached a deal to buy most of the assets from 21st Century Fox for roughly $52.4 billion – $12 billion more than it cost to acquire Marvel. The agreement is still subject to approval of antitrust regulators, reports NY Times.

Fox have lately been struggling to keep up with the new ways people view content, saying recently that the network want to focus their resources primarily on news and sport.

Disney chairman Robert Iger has had to renew his contract for the fourth time, delaying his retirement until 2021 since Rupert Murdoch asked him to do so. Iger said in a statement: “We’re honoured and grateful that Rupert Murdoch has entrusted us with the future of businesses he spent a lifetime”.

Murdoch said: “I firmly believe that this combination with Disney will unlock even more value for shareholders as the new Disney continues to set the pace in what is an exciting and dynamic industry”.

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When talks of this deal emerged, some observers on Twitter also pointed out that a brief visual joke in a 1998 Simpsons episode (When You Dish Upon a Star) appeared to predict Disney’s potential acquisition of 21st Century Fox – adding to the large number of times that the animated sitcom has ‘predicted’ the future.

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