News Disney and Fox come to terms -- announcement soon; huge IP acquisition

MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Quinnmac000 said:
Foreign media (Particularly russian media) is starting to state that China may block Disney-Fox Merger as an effect of the ongoing trade war. Especially with the deadline coming closer, once major multinationals are affected they will lobby for laws/trade to be changed.
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Russian media is in no way independent of the state. It is now fully a propaganda arm of Putin's administration. And they have one goal: sow dissension among as many factions as possible. The more divided the world, the more power they have since they're mostly isolated. Thus, don't believe a word they say.
 
bartholomr4

bartholomr4

Well-Known Member
Quinnmac000 said:
Foreign media (Particularly russian media) is starting to state that China may block Disney-Fox Merger as an effect of the ongoing trade war. Especially with the deadline coming closer, once major multinationals are affected they will lobby for laws/trade to be changed.
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For what its worth (my 2 cents), China would do so at its own risk..... China is fighting the perception of a government who forces the transfer of IP, and will not allow purchase out right of companies. If they want to compound the trade skirmish with the United states, they will make it harder for US or other international companies to merge.

Disney has had a great relationship with the Chinese government and its equity partners around Shanghai Disney. If the Chinese government wants Disney to expand in China, they will consider the Disney / 21CF merger as an opportunity. The impact on China will be minimal anyway.

I would suspect these Foreign media writers are trying to publish stories which result in clicks. China doesn't live in the world on its own. Barriers to trade which they erect, can result in retaliation when their companies try to expand internationally. A more likely scenario is one where they drag their feet until after the mid-term elections. (Again, my opinion)
 
H

happycamperuni

Active Member
China halted the Qualcomm-NXP merger because they were worried about Qualcomm's dominance of smartphone chips and if NXP's automotive chips were combined with Qualcomm's mobile chips, you'd have a really strong semiconductor company across multiple platforms.


As far as Disney-Fox goes, it's a lot harder to see why China would halt it; Disney has Disney Shanghai as its major operations in China and movie market share of Disney and Fox combined in China isn't anywhere near as strong as it is in the US or Europe.


If they do halt it, it's clearly for political considerations to try to put pressure on the US, but I'm skeptical they would. There are other mergers they can target in more sensitive markets like technology...
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Also, foreign governments have been targeting American interests traditionally allied with Trump and Republicans. I'm sure they know that Disney is not allied with Trump.
 
bartholomr4

bartholomr4

Well-Known Member
MisterPenguin said:
Also, foreign governments have been targeting American interests traditionally allied with Trump and Republicans. I'm sure they know that Disney is not allied with Trump.
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According to Variety, there really aren’t that many 21CF assets in China. They have a partnership with Bona Films to distribute their Films in China, and the NatGeo channels in chinese. Again According to Varitety, Murdoch sold off most of 21CF assets in China in 2005 because he couldn’t get the Chinese government to agree to the editorial arrangement he wanted. So its not like China can object to what is happening in Europe or Australia or the US, to stop the merger.... Seems like they would want to pick bigger fights, like the Qualcomm-NXP merger, and not Disney Fox....
 
H

happycamperuni

Active Member
MisterPenguin said:
Also, foreign governments have been targeting American interests traditionally allied with Trump and Republicans. I'm sure they know that Disney is not allied with Trump.
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At this point, the Chinese just seem desperate to put pressure on the US any way they can. Problem for them is that they don't import from the US anywhere near what the US imports from them.

So they're forced to try different tactics to put pressure on the US. I don't think they'll stop Disney-Fox, but they may delay their approval into 2019 to try to see if they can get Disney/Fox (especially Murdochs at Fox) to put pressure on Trump to negotiate with the Chinese.


This is more about Fox and the Murdochs (and their pull with Trump) than it is about Disney.
 
Rodan75

Rodan75

Well-Known Member
Quinnmac000 said:
Now US media is talking about China blocking the deal as we reach the last 48 hours.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3398119-investors-cautious-disney-fox-amid-china-tension
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-china-try-block-disney-fox-deal-1152832
https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-u-s-china-tensions-derail-two-big-deals-1539759840
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This aspect of the approval brings up a couple of interesting (and unfortunately touching on the political) thoughts:

1. I'm sure Iger and the Disney team have likely been working overtime to help the Chinese officials feel comfortable with this merger even if they do not speak directly to the regulators themselves. (I get the impression that it would not have been like the DoJ discussions). If Iger gets this done in this current climate, that will actually improve his political as well as business reputation. And could finally show a way for him to achieve political office.

2. The fact that China is so important to this merger and that Trump has been targeting them for sport for the last 6 months, really shows how little sway Murdoch has on the administration. This merger is important to Murdoch, but he hasn't been able to get his organization in line or use his relationship with the President to improve things, if this fails. Regardless of how this goes with China, Murdoch looks much weaker than he did 6-8 months ago.
 
bartholomr4

bartholomr4

Well-Known Member
Rodan75 said:
This aspect of the approval brings up a couple of interesting (and unfortunately touching on the political) thoughts:

1. I'm sure Iger and the Disney team have likely been working overtime to help the Chinese officials feel comfortable with this merger even if they do not speak directly to the regulators themselves. (I get the impression that it would not have been like the DoJ discussions). If Iger gets this done in this current climate, that will actually improve his political as well as business reputation. And could finally show a way for him to achieve political office.

2. The fact that China is so important to this merger and that Trump has been targeting them for sport for the last 6 months, really shows how little sway Murdoch has on the administration. This merger is important to Murdoch, but he hasn't been able to get his organization in line or use his relationship with the President to improve things, if this fails. Regardless of how this goes with China, Murdoch looks much weaker than he did 6-8 months ago.
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Very interesting thoughts..... Trump and Xi are going to be meeting at the G-20 Meeting in Argentina, next month after the US Election. This will be a time to watch which could take this in either direction (Agreement, or escalation of the trade "skirmish" ). The EU should also be ready to announce their acceptance of this week's concessions offered by Disney. I think that is due on November 6th.

It appeared Disney was anticipating the European objections (just like they anticipated and offered to divest the sports channels prior to the DOJ request). I wouldn't be surprised if Iger (who has met with Xi in the past at the time of Shanghai Disney) and team don't have similar concessions to offer (Like another Chinese Park). The Hollywood reporter seems to think the biggest objection would be Disney's market share of international films in China.

I would love to know what the legal strategy would be for going ahead with the merger, without China's approval (i.e. not merging the Chinese 21CF into New Disney) and leaving the current arrangement between 21CF and Bona Films in place.
 
ChrisFL

ChrisFL

Premium Member
MisterPenguin said:
Russian media is in no way independent of the state. It is now fully a propaganda arm of Putin's administration. And they have one goal: sow dissension among as many factions as possible. The more divided the world, the more power they have since they're mostly isolated. Thus, don't believe a word they say.
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ah, ironically like Fox News then
 
Q

Quinnmac000

Well-Known Member
britain said:
Well look what Disney stumbled upon...



Beastly Kingdom anyone?
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Ironically, that film isn't produced by Fox and just being distributed by them. It's produced Big Talk and Working Title Films...who owns Working Title Films....so essentially Disney would still have to work out a deal to use it...now in this case it would behoove Disney to play nice.

Before anyone tries to doubt me on this:
http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/ne...rts-on-joe-cornishs-the-kid-who-would-be-king
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Title_Films
 
D

D231016

Active Member
Looks like Disney is keeping Blue sky：
Reporting directly to Mr. Horn will be:

  • Emma Watts, Vice Chairman, Twentieth Century Fox Film and President, Production, Twentieth Century Fox
  • Nancy Utley and Stephen Gilula, Chairmen, Fox Searchlight Pictures
  • Elizabeth Gabler, President of Production, Fox 2000
Reporting to Mr. Horn and Ms. Watts will be:

  • Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird, Co-Presidents, Fox Animation
  • Vanessa Morrison, President, Fox Family
Click to expand...
 

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