[ad_1]
WASHINGTON – Approval by the Department of Justice of Fox's purchase by Walt Disney Co. is faster than expected by Wall Street and other badysts – and this certainly has consequences, as Comcast disagrees with its counter-offer. Analysts at UBS Media and Pay TV have described it as "FastPbad approval", while MoffettNathanson wrote that "it's a good thing." "It seems to us that the pressure is again on Comcast for a larger offer than the $ 38 a share of Disney's Century Fox Board to reject the bird in the regulatory approval of the
The proposed merger of Comcast with NBCUniversal was unveiled at the end of 2009, but took more than a year to get the green light from DOJ and the FCC. The acquisition of Time Warner by AT & T, first proposed in October 2016, took more than 18 months as the government challenged it in court.
How was the Disney-Fox merge so fast? In December, it was expected to take 12 to 18 months, although John Hodulik and other UBS badysts wrote that they thought the case Disney-Fox could be concluded before the end of the year.
In Relationship
Disney's ability to get approval now, however, six months after the announcement of the merger, could be critical as it faces another potential Comcast bid. Fox must schedule a shareholder vote to go ahead with a Disney offer.
"I could see how Disney wanted to close a deal quickly if the delay meant increasing the prospects of a Comcast counter," Hal Singer, economist at the George Washington Institute in announcing the approval, the Department of Justice noted that "to streamline the clearance of agencies, Disney agreed to cede the 22 RSNs rather than continuing the ongoing merger of the Antitrust Division. In other words, it became clear to Disney what was the main concern of the Department of Justice regarding the agreement: the purchase by Disney of the RSN would harm the competition for the sports programs in these local markets. Rather than trying to challenge this claim or negotiating certain conditions, a process that could have taken several months, Disney has accepted the type of structural remedy advocated by the DOJ under the direction of the chief of competition Makan Delrahim [19659008]. The approval may be imminent several weeks ago, when he said at a conference on June 7 that companies "had good advice and surgically cut out what a transaction that might be feasible." . "
He said, "They do not have to acquire Fox Sports One and Two." They did not buy Fox Broadcasting and said, "We're going to combine that with the ABC broadcast, and do you Do not worry, we will have an arbitrator who will decide if the prices go up. "
Disney and Fox also did not have to obtain FCC approval, since it was not necessary There was no license transfer that would trigger a review by the regulators.This would have opened the transaction to a new level of scrutiny and attention because the FCC determines whether a merger is in the marketplace. Public interest and generally puts a merger on the register for public comment.The Congress does not vote on mergers, but usually holds hearings on major media transactions.No one has been retained for the ## 147 ## The case of Disney-Fox, President Trump seemed to give his blessing to the transact ion the day of the announcement of the transaction.
Larry Downes, senior industry and innovation fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy, said he was "very surprised" "During a six-month period during which the agency was pursuing a new and ultimately failed theory of the extension of antitrust review to vertical mergers in a two-year review of AT & T-Time Warner, there was apparently no badysis on the horizontal problem the most obvious in the Disney-Fox case: the studios and their content, "said Downes in an e-mail
He noted that Disney and Fox are No. 1 and No. 2 at the box office , "with some of the most valuable intellectual property badets in the future for new services, including advanced video and live content to the consumer. Disney has already announced its intention to offer its own service [over-the-top] and has already removed content from competing platforms, including Netflix – that is, the actual foreclosure. And with a majority stake in Hulu (again, no comments from the DOJ), his stated intention to retain will be all the more effective. "
Downes said that he does not say that the agreement should not be approved," but approve it without any comment on the risks of concentration or mitigation or of protection for others in the supply chain is all a shock. "
At the time of the announcement of the Disney-Fox agreement, some antitrust experts have predicted that the Department of Justice attempted to block AT & T-Time Warner, it appeared to be" more optimistic about combinations involving different active content, "in the words of Mark Ostrau of Fenwick & West." Ticket market shares tend to fluctuate, and Disney could point to Amazon and Netflix as rivals of content, "he said. The National Association of Theater Owners has not contested the merger
The next step in the Department of Justice process is to register the proposed regulation in the Federal Register. Anyone can file comments on the transaction during a 60-day comment period, and it will be up to a federal judge to decide whether or not to sign the settlement.
There will also be the question of whether what happens a with Comcast – if the Disney offer will be superior to that of Disney.
On Wednesday, many competition experts, Capitol Hill lawmakers and public interest groups were not on Fox-Disney but on another proposed transaction, the Sprint-T Mobile merger, which has been submitted to a Judiciary of the Senate.
Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute, declined to comment on the speed of DOJ's approval of the Disney-Fox merger, but she is still concerned about what happens to the settlement. She stated that "it is indicative of the competitive consequences of the merger that the DOJ has demanded a full fallout from the Fox RSNs.We will see if this remedy completely restores competition."
She added, "This are highly specialized and important badets and given the few rivals in the RSN markets, it will be a heavy burden for a buyer to reintroduce the lost competition. "
Source link
