21st Century Fox and Disney are on a "glide path" for a Thursday deal announcement, according to sources cited by David Faber of CNBC.com. Disney became the "sole suitor after Comcast dropped its bid for the majority of Fox assets" yesterday. Current Fox shareholders would "get one share of the company that remains after the movie and television assets are sold, plus shares of Disney in a fixed exchange ratio" (CNBC.com, 12/12). Comcast yesterday said that it is "no longer pursuing an acquisition of several key media and entertainment assets" from Fox. Comcast in a statement said, "We never got the level of engagement needed to make a definitive offer." The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Joe Flint cites sources as saying that FS1 "isn’t part of any deal with Disney" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 12/12). In L.A., Meg James reports a Disney-Fox deal could "prompt a brain drain" of high-level Fox execs in the coming months (L.A. TIMES, 12/12). BROADCASTING & CABLE's Jon Lafayette writes Disney will be "transforming the TV ecosystem, creating a new content giant -- based on DNA that’s very different from a vertically integrated behemoth like Comcast or the still-possible combination of AT&T and Time Warner." Lafayette: "One wonders where all of the smaller media companies fit in as they try to deal with not only Netflix, but Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple." Disney will "need vast amounts of content." Fox can "provide a lot of content with both a deep library of movies and TV shows" (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 12/11 issue).
