Disney Closes $71.3 Billion Deal for 21st Century Fox Assets

This merger will make Disney one of the largest media libraries and company, but what will it mean for those who work at both companies?

Walt Disney Co. closed its 71. 3 billion dollar acquisition of 21^st Century Fox’s entertainment assets. From this merger, Disney will be on control of their movies and television productions along with some of their cable networks, such as FX and National Geographic. For instance, under this merger Disney would give this company access to successful and recognized TV and movie programming including The Simpsons, Modern Family, and the X-files. Disney acquiring Fox is apart of a larger long-term strategy as an entertainment company. In the age of streaming services, such as Netflix and Hulu, most entertainment studios feel that they need to expand their collection in order to sell and franchise streaming subscriptions. From this, Disney has already launched a streaming service tied to ESPN and plans to launch one later this year, Disney Plus. One major downside to this merger is the thousands of layoffs that will occur with Fox employees that are not Fox executives, leading to the dissolvement of multiple lower level jobs. Nevertheless, Disney’s acquisition of Fox is the biggest acquirement in its company history, as for how they will capitalize on it has still yet to be seen.

This article relates to marketing in that Disney has taken out one of its biggest competitor, absorbing their assets to make their company a stronghold in Hollywood. Another way is that with some of the new product they have acquire, they can re-brand and re-promote some of Fox’s productions to fit the Disney model. On the other hand, as stated above, this merger hurts Fox as a company as merging into Disney can result in multiple layoffs as Disney could bring in their own people for the vacant positions.

The reason I choose this article is that as someone who loves movies, this merger is interesting in terms of the products that Disney now has under their control. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the entertainment industry has evolved to the point where everyone has to get their product online.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/disney-completes-buy-of-foxs-entertainment-assets-11553074200