The Walt Disney Company: The 21st Century Fox Acquisition and Digital Distribution In March 2018, the Walt Disney Company's $71.3 billion bid for 21st Century Fox was accepted. The original bid of between $52 and $60 billion had been filed in November 2017, but Comcast intervened with its own bid. When the dust settled in the competitive contest, the 213t Century Fox assets were split three ways (Exhibit 1). Disney acquired the film, television and cable entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox. Rupert Murdoch and his family retained Fox Broadcasting, which owned Fox News and Sports and twenty eight local television stations. Comcast acquired Sky TV, the European satellite broadcasting entity which it won for $39 billion in a one day auction against Disney and Foxl. More specifically, Disney acquired the 20th Century Foxa film library, including such franchises as Marvelb and Avengers, and classics like Cleopatra and Avatar, as well as the current film and television studios; the FX and National Geographic cable networks in the U.S.; Star India, the Indian broadcast media company with over 700 million monthly viewers? and Fox' s 30% share of the Hulu video on- demand subscription service and a share of Sky TV. Disney then recouped $15 billion through the sale of Fox's 30% share in Sky TV to Comcast. Regulatory pressure in the U.S. required Disney to divest twentyone regional sports networks,3 and in Europe to sell off all its \"factual channels,\" including History and Lrme} which collectively recovered another $10 billion of the purchase price. The company then bought Comcast' s 30% share of Hulu for $6 billion and AT&T's 10% stake for $1.4 billion to end up owning 100% of that video streaming business. When the dust had settled Disney' s total net investment to acquire its share of the 21!\" Century Fox assets and Hulu, therefore, came to about $54 billion. Disney' s intent with the acquisition was to enhance its \"position as a premier, truly global entertainment company, and . . . [its] ability to offer innovative directto-consumer offerings.\" Specifically, it would make Disney the clear leader in traditional content businesses by owning additional movie franchises (Disney and Fox together would have had 28% of the North American box office between 1995 and 20185); exploit economies in film and television production and generate $2 a 21st Century Fox was the name of the parent corporation. 2!]\"1 Century Fox was the original name of the film studio division. b The original Disney acquisition of Marvel had not included the rights to some characters. billion in cost synergies by 2021,- broaden the scope of cable channels that could be offered in a bundle to cable networks; and expand its footprint outside the US. In early 2020, Disney announced that the \"Mouse had killed the Fox\" as it renamed the acquired assets \"215t Century,\" dropping the Fox moniker? The deal would also increase Disney' s sales to the nal consumer. Historically, less than 25% of Disney' s revenue came from a direct relationship with the end-consumer. This inhibited the ability to establish a deep customer relationship and use data to improve services, such as knowing a family's favorite Disney Princess when they booked a stay at Disney World. Acquiring Star India would substantially increase the end customer percentage, as would moving into digital distribution in the U.S.'l3 Indeed, after the acquisition, Disney quickly moved to introduce three video-on-demand subscription channels to be offered direct to the consumer (DTC). It would offer Hulu in direct competition with Netflix and HBO as an entertainment channel for adult audiences. The company then launched the Disney+ channel in late 2019. This featured at least five content channels, including Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, and National Geographic, and would show new content, such as a Star Wars universe series \"The Mandalorian\Exhibit 1 Assets Involved in Acquisition DisNEP 21ST CENTURY FOX COMCAST DISNEY GETS: FOX KEEPS: COMCAST GETS: Fox 20 Fox Movie Studios FOX Broadcast Channel Including: sky Marvel Films: XMen Other Films: Avatar, /FOX Fox MARVEL News SKY Plc., U.K. TV Planet of the Apes... Channel Fox TV FOX Fox Studios SPORTS Sports XFX FX Fox Network FOX Business BUSINESS NATIONAL National GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL Geographic Channel hulu Hulu Share increased to 60% Star Star TV India Source: Casewriter