In a major entertainment business deal, 21st Century Fox has agreed to step through a trans-dimensional gate provided by the acquisition of its major entertainment properties by The Walt Disney Company.
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The all-stock deal worth more than $52 billion will spin off Fox Broadcasting Co., Fox News, Fox Sports, Fox TV stations, and the 20th Century Fox studio lot in Los Angeles into an independent entity. There is a long list of the businesses that Disney plans to keep, but key to the plan is its existing Disney Chairman/CEO Bob Iger, who has agreed to keep his job through 2021 under the terms of the deal.
"We're honored and grateful that Rupert Murdoch has entrusted us with the future of businesses he spent a lifetime building," Iger said. "We're excited about this extraordinary opportunity to significantly increase our portfolio of well-loved franchises and branded content to greatly enhance our growing direct-to-consumer offerings."
Complementary franchises, which will now be better consolidated, include Avatar, Deadpool, Fantastic Four, and X-Men. National Geographic as well as the increasingly influential FX Networks also come over. And to get truly trans-dimensional, Disney has now acquired "The Simpsons," which in 1998 included a big building labeled "20th Century Fox, a Division of Walt Disney Co."
It's the 21st century now and Iger will configure how to leverage his new majority stake in Hulu, maintain his competitive relationship with Netflix, launch a Disney's-own online platform, and survive in a world that seems like it's being taken over by internet companies.
Iger's are not the only hands shaping our future, but with this acquisition the odds go way up that we will be spending hours enjoying the fruits of his labors.
