Comcast drops Fox bid, clearing sale to Disney
NEW YORK — Comcast is dropping its bid for Fox’s entertainment businesses, paving the way for Disney to boost its upcoming streaming service by buying the studios behind “The Simpsons” and X-Men.
Comcast now can focus on its pursuit of European pay-TV operator Sky, a deal that would give the Philadelphia-based cable and media company a larger presence outside the U.S.
The moves come as the media landscape is shifting dramatically. Cable and telecom companies are buying contentmakers to compete with popular streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon. AT&T bought Time Warner last month for $81 billion.
Comcast had been dueling with Disney for 21st Century Fox, but Comcast said Thursday that it will not raise its $66 billion offer for Fox. Walt Disney Co. had topped Comcast’s bid by offering $71 billion.
The U.S. Department of Justice has approved Disney’s bid as long as Disney, which owns the national sports network ESPN, sells Fox’s 22 regional sports networks. Fox shareholders are set to vote on Disney’s offer on July 27.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said he was “extremely pleased” with Comcast’s announcement.
“Our focus now is on completing the regulatory process and ultimately moving toward integrating our businesses,” he said in a statement.
If the deal closes, Disney would get a controlling stake in streaming service Hulu and the Twentieth Century Fox film and TV studios. Disney owns Marvel Studios, but some characters including the X-Men had already been licensed to Fox. A sale means the X-Men and the Avengers could reunite in future movies. With Fox, Disney would also have a larger library of movies and shows for a streaming service set to debut next year.
“This was the final chapter in this soap opera,” GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives said.
Ives said Comcast’s focus now is on acquiring Sky “to build a strong beachhead content strategy in Europe.”
Sky operates in Austria, Britain, Germany, Ireland and Italy. It has 22.5 million customers, attracted by offerings such as English Premier League soccer and “Game of Thrones.”