Disney and 21st Century Fox Merger

By: Matt McGuire

Two of the world’s largest companies in entertainment, Disney and 21st Century Fox, officially announced their merger on Wednesday, March 20th. The $71.3 billion deal was announced last year, and the companies left no time wasted in making their blend official.

The behemoth Disney, who already has control of the historic studios of Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar are seemingly aiming to take even more control of the media scene. With the merging of the companies, Disney prepares to officially launch their own streaming service, ‘Disney+,’ later this year to rival Netflix, the top streaming service over the past few years.

The merger gives Disney the ownership of many renounced Fox copyrights, such as Marvel characters Deadpool, the X-Men, and Fantastic Four, alongside TV networks FX and National Geographic. On top of individual copyrights, Fox will share their 30% ownership of Hulu, giving Disney a total of 60% ownership in the streaming business.

Fox Corporation will retain the ownership of its most valuable assets, such as Fox News, Fox Sports and Fox Business, but have officially moved on from their entertainment portion. This move may prove to be a major benefit to both companies in the future, and it will be very interesting where this merger will take both companies in the coming years.