Disney Reportedly in Talks to Purchase 21st Century Fox

The Walt Disney Company is reportedly in talks to purchase most of 21st Century Fox, according to CNBC.

According to the report, talks have been taking place for Disney to buy most of the company, not including the news and sports assets.

While talks have been taking place over the last several weeks, there no guarantee that there will be a deal. The report says that talks have ceased for the time being, but that the entire conversation has been on again and off again for some time.

The deal would specifically include 20th Century Fox, 21st Century Fox’s movie studio. The deal could then reunite Marvel’s X-Men and Fantastic Four with the characters currently existing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and could bring the rights to the home release of the theatrical cut of Star Wars to the same company that owns Lucasfilm.

Fox senior management is reportedly leaning towards a tighter focus on news and sports for the multimedia company to more effectively compete in those spaces.

As the article speculates, 21st Century Fox is simply not a big enough media company to able to compete in the changing entertainment landscape that has developed as a result of the rise of streaming companies like Netflix and Amazon.

Since Disney is prohibited from owning two broadcast companies, the deal would not include the Fox broadcast network, but it would include cable networks FX and National Geographic. The deal would also not include Fox Sports, as the purchase could be seen as anti-competitive for the sake of antitrust laws.

Disney has already acquired a massive media library that includes the Marvel and Star Wars universe. The purchase of 21st Century Fox would also bring the X-Men movie franchise under that umbrella, for Disney to do with as they see fit, as well as the Alien film franchise.

The X-Men movies franchise is currently booming, with spinoffs Deadpool and Logan generating high box office take and critical acclaim. The franchise will expand further in 2018 with The New Mutants, Deadpool 2, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and even further in 2019 with the Gambit movie.