Disney Reportedly Planning to Add Cash to Fox Bid

Last week, Comcast threw a wrench into Disney's plans when it topped the company's bid for the 21st Century Fox assets. It doesn't look like Disney is going away quietly however, as it's now being reported that the company is preparing to add even more cash to its bid in an attempt to further sweeten the deal.

According to CNBC, sources say that Disney is currently aiming to increase its initial bid of $52.4 billion. The massive bid, which was made in stock, was toppled by Comcast on June 13, when the media company announced a $65 billion cash offer to acquire the assets.

While Disney and Fox had already agreed on the terms of a merger, the Comcast bid is set to be discussed by the 21st Century Fox board this Wednesday. If the board decides that the offer from Comcast is sufficient, Disney will have a five-day window to try and top the bid.

There's a chance that, if the bidding war continues, Disney and Comcast could potentially split the 21st Century assets, each ending up with a percentage of the company.

A deal from either side would end up with a massive gain in assets, but the one that fans in the comic book world are paying the closest attention to is the rights to a group of Marvel comic book characters. Fox currently owns the rights to characters from the X-Men and Fantastic Four comics, and fans have long hoped to see those characters enter the fold of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since Disney owns Marvel Studios, the merger of Disney and Fox would allow all of the comic characters to finally be together for the first time on screen.

This growing bidding war for Fox comes in the wake of a federal judge ruling in favor of AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, a deal that had several legal hoops to jump through in recent years. According to CNBC's report, this deal is set to start a wave of big company mergers.

The Fox board will meet in two days to discuss the offer from Comcast.