Disney Wins Approval to Buy 21st Century Fox Assets
Disney won approval for its $71.3 billion bid to buy 21st Century Fox assets on the condition that it sells off Fox's local sports networks, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.
The news came after reports that Comcast is reportedly considering strategic partnerships with other companies or private equity firms in order to outbid Disney, according to the Wall Street Journal. While no immediate plans are in the works, the Journal said Comcast could turn to these options, if bidding for Fox got into the $90 billion range.
Fox announced last week it agreed to Disney's offer, which the company was forced to raise from its original $52.4 billion bid made last December. The increase came after Comcast put in a competing all-cash $65 billion offer in the wake of a judge's approval of AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner earlier this month.
Both media giants are looking for new revenue streams amid increasing competition from streaming companies like Netflix and Hulu.
One potential strategy for Comcast, according to the Journal, would be for a partner to take Fox's U.S. properties ー ie, its movie and TV studios and regional sports networks ー while Comcast gets the international assets, including Britain's Sky and Star India.
It's unclear when and if Comcast will make a move, though, as Disney and Fox postponed a shareholder vote on their deal originally scheduled for July 10. Potential partners were also not disclosed.
The DoJ is only one of the many regulators Disney needs to appease to get final approval for its deal.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
