 |
Comcast has confirmed rumors that it plans to derail Disney’s bid for most of 21st Century Fox.
In a statement released by Comcast today, the company says it is in the “advanced stages” of putting together an offer for the businesses that Fox agreed to sell to Disney for $52.4 billion in stock in December.
Any deal Comcast makes for Fox would be all-cash, according to the statement.
While Fox would have to pay a breakup fee of $1.52 billion if they pull out of the Disney deal, Comcast says that its bid would more than cover that cost, putting the offer “at a premium to the value of the current all-share offer from Disney.”
There could be some potential tax hurdles to Comcast’s bid, however. While Disney's stock offer would allow Fox to spin off its assets tax-free, a cash offer from Comcast would result in a taxable spin, sources told CNBC.
Disney's drive to broaden its footprint in video streaming to compete with Neflix would likely take a blow if Comcast’s bid is successful. The deal includes Fox’s existing 30 percent stake in Hulu, as well as a 50 percent share in Endemol Shine Group (the satellite service of Star India) and a 39 percent stake in European satellite broadcaster Sky.
While 21st Century Fox executive chairman Lachlan Murdoch has said that Fox is “committed to our agreement with Disney,” he concedes that the company’s board “are aware of their fiduciary duties on behalf of all shareholders.”
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.