Quinnmac000
Well-Known Member
They are stupid unless Disney has at minimum 195 billion not including Comcast current debt to blow they aren’t buying Comcast
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Disney's Next Acquisition Speculation / Discussion
- Thread starter Darkprime
- Start date
They are stupid unless Disney has at minimum 195 billion not including Comcast current debt to blow they aren’t buying Comcast
Yea not this soon after closing the Fox deal. Would be awesome if they got Spider-Man back.
brodie999
Active Member
I know, but look at all the waters, fountains, fireworks and color buildings for Universal's new park, all of these are things Disney displays at Disneyland. I think Universal is debuting Disney-themed rides after the intention between the studios all these years.
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Could be some sort of licensing deal with Universal to use more Disney characters..And In return Marvel gets Hulk back.
brodie999
Active Member
Sounds right. Then the only characters still not owned by Marvel will be Spidey and his supporting cast. Their mission to have access to all of their characters is finally being completed. I always thought Spider-Man would come home first, but considering Universal and Marvel may have made this deal to regain Hulk's distribution rights, he'll be the last character to come home.
Quinnmac000
Well-Known Member
I know, but look at all the waters, fountains, fireworks and color buildings for Universal's new park, all of these are things Disney displays at Disneyland. I think Universal is debuting Disney-themed rides after the intention between the studios all these years.
Park design is not owned by Disney. Comcast just find value in the parks so they are willing to pay the costs to get the park of their dreams compared to the old owners.
Additionally this is Steve Burke's (NBCU CEO) and Comcast revenge. Steve Burke got passed up for Bob Iger and Comcast got spurned by Disney when they attempted their hostile takeover.
bartholomr4
Well-Known Member
I read the Orlando news paper regarding the Epic park announcement. The suggested it would be three years of building and we wouldn’t know about details for quite some time “for competitive reasons”. All kinda silly if you ask me.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
I'm sorry but you just don't understand how US regulations works if you believe the announcement is that Disney would buy Comcast....
First, the FCC, SEC, and FTC won't let Disney buy Comcast as a whole without breaking up Comcast. Comcast is made up of a bunch of different companies not just the cable side:
List of assets owned by Comcast - Wikipedia
NBCUniversal is the biggest piece of Comcast. Disney being the owner of ABC CANNOT own NBC, its the reason why Fox broadcast stations were not part of the Disney/Fox deal. Plus with them just closing the deal with Fox a couple months ago, again regulators would not let Disney gobble up another movie studio in Universal.
So with NBCUniversal having to be spun out there isn't much value left in Comcast for it to make sense for Disney to buy at the price it would cost.
Sorry but no.
As for the announcement, its likely not anything Parks related. Its being done in a smaller presentation space not the main hall, which would make it something less stellar than a new park being announced.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
Why not just buy all of Vivendi instead of just the music division?
champdisney
Well-Known Member
Disney’s next acquisition will see them buying out cats. No, not the cringe worthy musical coming out later this year. I’m talking about your pet cat.
Set your prices up high, folks.
Set your prices up high, folks.
Now that the CBS CBS Viacom deal is done, Bob Bakish, says they are looking at other deals and that they have a strong balance sheet. The rumors I have heard are Sony Pictures and Lionsgate are the next expected targets for M&A. Personally, I think ViacomCBS should go after Lionsgate but if they went after Sony Pictures, Disney should try and buy the Spiderman rights back and Sony's library of Spiderman movies and shows.
bartholomr4
Well-Known Member
I agree.... With everything on Disney's plate at the moment, the only acquisition I can see them making is making an agreement with Sony to "change the licensing agreement" for the Spiderverse. Disney does own the Spiderverse, and changing the agreement is something which could be done quickly by lawyers without Wall Street, or Regulators. From a transition perspective, the impact to the 21CF merger / consolidation efforts would be very minimal.
The key to pulling off the agreement is understanding the value of Sony Pictures with the Spiderverse and without. For example, if ViacomCBS would pay (rough numbers for argument) $100 for Sony Pictures now (with the Spiderverse) and $80 for Sony Pictures without the Marvel properties, then Disney would have to pay at least $21 for the re-acquisition of the rights.
There is a separate company that DisneyMarvel and Sony own together to manage income around commercial product sales / licensing. Resolution of this LLC would also have to be considered.
Disney would also need to consider what type of partner ViacomCBS would be if they lost out in the bid, compared to the current relationship with Sony. What would it mean to Disney+/Hulu for streaming rights, etc.
This is the only acquisition (or better said "change in licensing agreement) I can see Bob Iger making before his retirement.
The key to pulling off the agreement is understanding the value of Sony Pictures with the Spiderverse and without. For example, if ViacomCBS would pay (rough numbers for argument) $100 for Sony Pictures now (with the Spiderverse) and $80 for Sony Pictures without the Marvel properties, then Disney would have to pay at least $21 for the re-acquisition of the rights.
There is a separate company that DisneyMarvel and Sony own together to manage income around commercial product sales / licensing. Resolution of this LLC would also have to be considered.
Disney would also need to consider what type of partner ViacomCBS would be if they lost out in the bid, compared to the current relationship with Sony. What would it mean to Disney+/Hulu for streaming rights, etc.
This is the only acquisition (or better said "change in licensing agreement) I can see Bob Iger making before his retirement.
I think ViacomCBS might be more open to a sale of the Spider-Man rights than Sony. Or at least a stronger partnership that gives Marvel full control. (Maybe they would sell back production rights but keep distribution?) Paramount seemed ok doing that with the early days of the MCU and just getting distribution rights. My one question is. If Sony Pictures are ever acquired but remain intact as a subsidiary do they still get to hold onto their licensing deal with Marvel or will the new parent company adopt that contract and get to move it around or do whatever they want with it? Like Disney seems to have done with the Fox Marvel characters.
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bartholomr4
Well-Known Member
Disney still owns Spider-man and licenses it to Sony. There is a contract you can read, which many people believe to be the agreement executed between Disney and Sony which was posted by WikiLeaks. Sony had a data breach and a bunch of their contracts were made public. Neither Sony nor Disney have confirmed it is the contract, but it appears to be consistent with the emergence of the modern Sony Movies produced by Marvel Studios. In that agreement it does amend a prior agreement and make clear (the prior contract was not clear) that this agreement would survive a sale of Sony Pictures. The acquirer would not be able to modify the contract without Marvel/Disney’s approval, but Disney can’t change it either.
There’s a lot in the contract, which gives Disney rights to Spider-Man consumer products when there isn’t a movie going on, and sets up a company where both Disney and Sony share royalties within a window in front of and after a movie. It allows for the production of animated movies above a certain length for Sony, but less than the length for Marvel/Disney. It also recognizes three types of characters in the Spiderverse. Those which are useable by Sony (over 900), those which are now Disney/Marvel only and those which neither agree to use without the agreement of the other party. It’s important to note that the 900 characters are really names and associated charcters, locations, conditions many of which replicate (i.e. Spider-man has over a dozen names and alias on the list, but in reality he is only one character). There are a lot of rules around how the characters have to be viewed, and what their personality traits are, and Disney has the ability to veto the use of a character which doesn’t comply with the rules(including how those characters look relative to the Comic Books they originally appeared in). There is also a bunch of legalese which clarifies that Disney / Marvel does own the characters but licenses them conditionally to Sony.
Also of interest, is the need for the continued use of the Spiderverse characters and that Sony (or it successors) will loose their license to the characters if they don’t release a movie every 3 years or 3 within 8 years(I don’t remember the exact terms but it is something like this) . Every time they release a movie, the clock starts again. Sony doesn’t have any theme park rights. Those are tied up east of the Mississippi by the Avengers contract with Universal (a whole other story)
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Quinnmac000
Well-Known Member
If what Gary Synder is saying is true, it looks like a merged CBS/VIACOM will be up for sale next
https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/shari-redstone-cbs-viacom/
https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/shari-redstone-cbs-viacom/
brodie999
Active Member
Geez, I hope Disney will be the ones, making the deal. Viacom's film division Paramount Pictures did distribute 6 of the first 7 MCU films. It'd be surprising if Disney gains the rights to NCIS, Terminator, Transformers, TMNT, G.I Joe and Paranormal Activity. Not to mention, officially owning the rights to the Marvel movies I mentioned above.
Quinnmac000
Well-Known Member
Disney maybe not depending on how much the marketshare Paramount has but Time Warner and Comcast yes but they would have to divest of CBS broadcasting channel
bartholomr4
Well-Known Member
Both Time Warner and Comcast are listed as 1 and 2 as the most indebted companies in America. Comcast just committed to a bunch of 5G spectrum licenses, and a 700 Acre park in Orlando (plus the care and feeding of Sky in Europe).... Don’t think it is likely. Apple or Amazon could pull it off, but they have political problems..... Think another Merger between CBS and someone else is more likely.