In separate ballrooms at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Friday morning, shareholders of the Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox agreed to a $71.3 billion purchase plan that gives Disney the bulk of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, substantially altering the entertainment landscape. But the shareholder votes brought to a close a six-month corporate showdown, waged across two continents by Disney and Comcast, for supremacy in the rapidly changing media business. “Avatar,” the “X-Men” movies, “Titanic” and TV shows such as “The Simpsons” and “This Is Us” will now be owned by Disney. The deal also gives Disney the cable networks FX and National Geographic; a controlling stake in the streaming service Hulu, which has more than 20 million subscribers; and Star, one of India’s fastest growing media companies. Disney is acknowledging that the future of television and movie viewing is online, and this move could set off a wave of mergers in the film business, which has not seen significant consolidation since 1935, when 20th Century Pictures and Fox Film merged to form 20th Century Fox.

Source: New York Times July 27, 2018 14:12 UTC