UPDATE 12/5/17: An announcement may come next week regarding Disney purchasing assets from 21st Century Fox, according to CNBC.
The chunk of Fox that Disney might scoop up is said to be valued at $60 billion. Comcast is still in the running, but Disney has gotten further.
The original story from Nov. 11 is unedited below.
21st Century Fox hasn’t ended the deal to sell its movies and television properties to The Walt Disney Company yet.
While it was reported on Monday that the companies were not dealing right now, CNBC said on Friday that the talks aren’t dead.
“Pencils aren’t down,” business journalist David Faber said. “…it does appear at the very least that they have not abandoned the idea of that combination.”
It was reported that Disney would own all of Fox aside from the broadcast channel, their sports programming, Fox’s local affiliates, Fox News and the Business channel. CNBC said people at Fox believe the company would “compete more effectively” when stripped down to news and sports.
Disney would love to have Fox’s library of movies and TV at their disposal as they gear up their own Netflix competitor streaming service for 2019. The company has a sports-focused streaming service, ESPN Plus, coming out spring 2018. The two companies already have a nice relationship with a 12-acre area in Disney World’s Animal Kingdom park devoted to Fox’s Avatar that opened in May.
