Rich Greenfield Breaks Down Why He's Bearish on Disney Buying Fox
Disney struck a deal on Thursday to help build up its arsenal of content as it prepares to launch its own video streaming service.
The media giant agreed to pay more than $52 billion for most of 21st Century Fox, adding the company's film and TV studios, international properties and channels such as FX.
But BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield says doesn't understand why the company wants to increase its exposure to the "troubled legacy media business."
"This feels like Disney is cementing itself in the past, rather than aggressively moving into the future," he told Cheddar in an interview shortly after the deal was announced. "There were a lot of transactions they could've done that would've been a lot more exciting than this."
The alternatives? Greenfield says Snap, Twitter, Activision-Blizzard, or Spotify would all have been better options.
But the deal does give Disney ownership of high-profile franchises such as "X-Men" and "The Simpsons," titles that could make the library for its own planned streaming service more attractive.
The company said in August that it will pull content off Netflix in 2019. Instead, films from "Iron Man" to "Star Wars" to "Toy Story" will only be available on its own platform.
To watch the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/btig-analyst-rich-greenfield-on-disney-fox-deal).
Cheddar News breaks down what to look for on The Day Ahead, as TikTok CEO is scheduled to testify before Congress on Thursday while earnings from General Mills and Darden Restaurants are on tap. Residential sales data for February is also scheduled to be released.
Virgin Orbit is reportedly in talks for a $200 million rescue plan and the company said in a regulatory filing that it plans to resume operations on Thursday.
Jack Daniels was at the U.S. Supreme Court today. The whiskey-makers argued that a dog toy company violated federal trademark law with a product that parodies the distiller's iconic bottle. The toy is the Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker toy by VIP products. The first amendment case pits the rights of a famous trademark holder against parody products. Jack Daniel says the toy damages its reputation, especially the references to dog poop.
Alcohol brand White Claw is moving into spirits amid an industrywide shift away from hard seltzers. The spiked seltzer brand announced a new line of regular and flavored White Claw premium vodkas. The bottles are available in select markets across North America and come in an unflavored option as well as pineapple mango and black cherry white Claw has dominated the Heart Seltzer market for years. Now bringing the category into the mainstream as more consumers sought those low calorie alcohol drinks.
Stocks are holding relatively steady Wednesday as Wall Street bides its time until the Federal Reserve’s announcement in the afternoon about whether it will tighten the screws further on the economy.
