Disney reportedly held talks to acquire most of 21st Century Fox, and while a deal currently being discussed, Sean Aune, director of operations at Techno Buffalo, joined Cheddar to expound on what a potential tie-up could mean.
For starters, Aune says this is an interesting move for Fox, given that the company “was born out of being a movie studio.” The potential deal would have seen those properties move over to Disney, leaving Fox with its sports and news properties. While a sale would be a risky move, Aune says the remaining assets are still Fox’s forte.
“If anyone can make it work, Fox can,” he said.
As for Disney, there’s a lot of content to play with, and says that could make the company more “content-hungry.” In addition, an acquisition would boost Disney’s competitive edge in negotiating prices for its content, due to new creators in its resource pool.
“There’s a lot of things that Disney is going to gain out of this,” he said, including the rights to "X-Men” and the “Fantastic Four”. Aune points out that would largely close the company's attempted acquisition of Marvel several years ago.
He suggested that all of the new content would smooth out challenges for Disney, which is launching its own streaming service.
On the streaming front, many investors fear what a potential acquisition would mean for Netflix. Aune, however, is not worried.
He says that by the time the Disney product launches, Netflix will be a largely “original content”-only platform, something that works in favor of the streaming giant.
“Most of what I watch on Netflix is their original content,” Aune said. “I don’t think there’s much to worry about here.”
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