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Disney's Fox Deal Is Official. Here's What We Still Don't Know
Disney’s $52.4 billion acquisition of Fox is its biggest deal ever.
14 Dec 2017, 09:33 PM IST 
Signage is displayed for the FOX Galaxy Parking garage outside of 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles, California, U.S. (Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) -- Walt Disney Co.’s $52.4 billion acquisition of a large chunk of 21st Century Fox Inc., its biggest deal ever, finally got announced Thursday after weeks of speculation, but there are lingering questions about how the deal will play out.
Below are some of the major points of the deal:
| What We Know | What We Don’t Know |
|---|---|
| Disney will pay about $28 a share in an all-stock deal for Fox businesses including a movie studio, cable channels and international assets. | How will investors value the remaining Fox business? Those holdings are worth $11 to $12 a share, a person familiar with the matter said this week. |
| Fox shareholders will be left with Fox News, Fox Business and Fox Sports 1 -- essentially the live programming assets -- as well as the Fox broadcast network. | What will become of Murdoch’s broadcast network when it no longer has a TV studio behind it? |
| Fox CEO James Murdoch could eventually be offered a senior job at Disney after the deal closes | Is there a shot he becomes Disney CEO when Bob Iger ultimately retires in 2021? |
| The sale includes the 20th Century Fox film business, but not the actual studio backlot. | What becomes of that real estate? Will the combined company adopt Disney’s film strategy, which means a lot fewer art-house pictures, such as 2014 Oscar winner “12 Years a Slave,” and more blockbuster sequels like “Avatar?” |
| Much of the deal valuation is based on Fox’s regional sports networks, such as YES, the New York Yankees channel. | How will sports leagues, fans and regulators react to ESPN’s owner controlling that much live sports on TV? |
| Disney is acquiring Fox’s 39 percent stake in European TV provider Sky Plc. | Will regulators approve Fox’s pending offer to acquire the rest of that business, knowing that Disney will eventually take it over? |
| With the acquisition of Fox’s 30 percent of U.S. streaming service Hulu, Disney’s share jumps to a majority ownership. | How will that change the strategy at one of the strongest competitors to Netflix Inc.? |
--With assistance from Nabila Ahmed
To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr
©2017 Bloomberg L.P.