Disney is very, very close to securing its purchase of 21st Century Fox.
Comcast and Disney have gone back and forth over purchasing Rupert Murdoch's empire since November, but Disney always appeared to have the lead. Now, Comcast is officially dropping its $65 billion bid, practically ensuring victory for Disney, The Associated Press reports.
Rumors of Disney purchasing Fox first sprouted in November, and Comcast joined the fray soon after. In December, Disney placed a $52.4 billion bid for Fox's TV and film studios, as well as its cable TV channels. Comcast countered with $65 billion in cash in June, but Disney posted a $71.3 billion offer in cash and stock later that month. Fox touted Disney's higher chance for U.S. regulatory approval at the time.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
That big Disney deal appears to be the winner after Comcast dropped out of the running Thursday, CNN says. It helps that a Disney-Fox merger got U.S. Justice Department approval after the $71.3 billion offer, provided Disney doesn't keep Fox's sports networks. (Disney already owns the ESPN networks.)
A successful Comcast bid would have made it one of the most indebted companies in the world, per CNN. But that doesn't seem to bother the media giant, as it's still bidding against Fox for U.K.-based Sky News. Comcast seems more likely to win that battle, as British regulators hinted in February that a deal with Fox wouldn't get government approval.
Fox's shareholders officially vote to accept the Disney deal on July 27, which includes the 20th Century Fox film studio and cable channels such as FX, per AP. Fox News, Fox Sports, and local TV stations will be spun off into a new company.
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Codeword: August 23, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
