Report: Sony Wants To Buy 21st Century Fox
Jorge Arenas
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Just a few weeks after it was reported Disney was interested in buying 21st Century Fox, a new report indicates Sony is also in the bidding for the company.
According to a report from Variety, Sony is joining the growing list of companies trying to make a bid for the studio.
The news that 21st Century Fox was looking to sell took us all by surprise after it was reported Disney wanted to purchase the film and production studios as well as their international TV platforms including Sky and Star India not to mention FX and National Geographic.
Sony and Disney aren’t the only companies interested in 21st Century Fox, Comcast and Verizon have also signaled they would be interested in purchasing the company. Fortune Magazine’s Tom Huddleston Jr. believes the reason 21st Century Fox is up for sale is because of increased competition from Netflix and Amazon. It was reported earlier this year that Netflix was planning to spend $8 billion on original content and they already acquired their own comics property in Millarworld. For their part, Disney is already splitting ways with Netflix to jump-start their own in-house streaming service.
If one of these large studios were to buy Fox it would have a huge impact on the current slate of Marvel superhero movies. As you probably already know, 21st Century Fox holds the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic 4 franchises, while Sony retains the rights to Spider-Man. Sony also has a deal with Disney/Marvel Studios that allows Spider-Man to interact with the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we saw with this year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and previously in Captain America: Civil War. Fox also owns the physical distribution rights to Disney’s Star Wars franchise. If Disney or Sony were to acquire 21st Century Fox it would most likely have a major impact on the X-Men and the Fantastic 4.
However, not everyone is excited about the prospect of Fox selling its movie assets. One of those is Deadpool creator and comics legend Rob Liefeld. Liefeld took to Instagram to pen a short letter to Rupert Murdoch, the man behind Fox, to urge him not to sell.
Liefeld writes:
Dear Rupert, (Hi James, Hi Lachlan)
It’s your buddy Rob. Wait on any further talks until Deadpool 2 opens and does a billion. And X-Force!
This is your Star Wars franchise and you’ve only scratched the surface. Everyone on the film side has kicked it into overdrive. Watch that portfolio grow!
All the best,
Rob Liefeld
Representatives from both Fox and Sony have declined to comment on the situation and the report also indicates the discussions are at the earliest stages.
All of this talk is just fueling the fire of what this merger would mean. Do you want to see 21st Century Fox sell their assets? If so who would you like to see gobble them up?
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