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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Disney, Comcast Lock Horns in Battle for Fox

It’s been a big month for news at the two movie studios in Burbank. First, Warner Bros. Entertainment has a new corporate owner after a federal judge approved the merger between AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Inc., now known as WarnerMedia after the deal closed on June 15. Second, Comcast Corp. launched a competing bid to Walt Disney Co.’s planned acquisition of the media assets of 21st Century Fox. Previously, analysts speculated that if the AT&T-Time Warner deal went through that Comcast would make a play for Fox. Tuna Amobi, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research in New York, said the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon sent a signal that the regulatory environment could be more favorable despite the U.S. Justice Department suing to block the $85 billion AT&T takeover on the basis of antitrust concerns. Amobi called the ruling a “hands down” win for Time Warner and AT&T and could set an important precedent for more companies to seek out opportunities to grow through consolidation. “The combination of a favorable regulatory backdrop, the judicial precedent and the motivation for economies of scale are still in play and probably will result in more M&A in the space in the near to medium term,” Amobi said. As for Disney, the entertainment and media giant is not likely to just roll over now that Comcast has gotten in on trying to buy the film and TV studios, cable channels and regional sports networks of Fox. Disney has offered $52 billion while Philadelphia-based Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal in Universal City, has placed a $65 billion all-cash bid. “That is nothing you can sneeze at,” Amobi said. “Fox cannot afford to do that because of their fiduciary duties to shareholders. We thought the Murdochs and Fox might have some preference for Disney’s original offer but now it seems like a two-horse race with Comcast stepping up to the plate.” Neil Macker, an equity analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago, said in a research note on Disney that he believed the Comcast offer will trigger “a bidding war” between the two companies as both “look to bulk up to compete.” “While the all-cash offer is above the Disney all-stock offer, we note that the Murdoch family appears to prefer the Disney shares and the preferable tax implications of an all-stock deal,” Macker said in his note. “As a result, we expect that Disney will not need to significantly outbid Comcast if and when Disney sweetens its all-stock offer with cash.” Disney announced on June 20 that it raised its bid for Fox to $71.3 billion, some $6 billion above the Comcast offer. KCLU Journalism Award Lance Orozco, the news director at KCLU Radio in Thousand Oaks, won his fourth national award for excellence in journalism this month. Orozco received the 2017 National Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for Best Radio Feature Reporting among small-market stations for his story on Tobias, a former shelter dog trained to track down Argentine ants on Santa Cruz Island to make sure the pests had been eradicated. Orozco had previously received national journalism awards from the journalist society in 2017 for his coverage of the Sherpa Fire. In 2010, he won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Audio Sports Reporting from the Radio Television Digital News Association for his profile of the oldest living L.A. Dodger. Orozco has won more than 200 regional journalism awards and has been named the Associated Press Small-Market Reporter of the Year in the western United States 10 times. KCLU, on the campus of California Lutheran University, provides National Public Radio and local news programming to more than 100,000 weekly listeners in Ventura County and southern Santa Barbara County. On-Air Investigators NBC4/KNBC has expanded its investigative team with the additions of two reporters and a producer. Investigative reporter Eric Leonard will focus on government corruption and high-profile crimes for the Universal City-based station, while current NBC4 reporter Lolita Lopez will cover enterprise stories on regional issues. Producer Josh Underwood-Davis also joins the investigative team, made up of reporter Joel Grover and consumer investigator Randy Mac. Vice President of News Todd Mokhtari said the station’s ongoing investment in investigative stories impacts thousands of viewers. “NBC4 has built a robust reputation uncovering wrongdoing that has led to viewer refunds and savings of millions of dollars and is changing local and statewide policies for the better,” Mokhtari said in a statement. Staff Reporter Mark R. Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or [email protected].

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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