Archives for May 2018

If one thing's clear from this year's ridiculous market whipsaws, changing North Korean narrative, and plunging crypto prices, it's that a lot can happen in just the first five months of a new year.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in The Walt Disney Co.'s potential $52 billion acquisition of most of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc.'s assets, a deal that seemed like a foregone conclusion when I first wrote about it in December.

But then Comcast Corp. jumped in with a counteroffer that Fox rejected in lieu of a deal with Disney. That didn't hurt Comcast's confidence, however, and the firm is now expected in June to propose a $60 billion counter-counteroffer.

On top of all this is the already full-fledged bidding war for British media giant Sky Plc., which has received offers from Disney, Fox (which already owns roughly one-third of the company), and Comcast. The British Panel on Takeovers and Mergers has ruled that if the Disney-Fox deal goes through, Disney must buy the 66% of Sky that Fox does not already own within 28 days.

All of these plot threads are quickly becoming more complicated than the Marvel Cinematic Universe on steroids.

Now, I typically don't give much attention to these deals, since I'm all about unreasonably good bargains – and these mega-deals often leave us with overpriced assets that aren't even worth a passing glance.