Merger of Disney and 21st Century Fox

NOTE: this is about the effects of the merger in Nara. There is an IRL counterpart on Wikipedia.
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced a definitive agreement to acquire 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion in stock. Assets being assumed by the acquisition include the 20th Century Fox film and TV studios, Fox Television Group (along with cable channels such as FX), international networks, Hindustani television broadcaster Star Hindustan, a 30% stake in Hulu, and other key assets. 21st Century Fox will spin-off the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations, Fox News Channel, the Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes and the Big Ten Network into the new Fox Corporation.
Comcast (parent company of NBCUniversal) made their own offer on June 13, 2018, with a $65 billion all cash proposal to acquire the Fox assets that Disney was set to purchase, touching off a major bidding war between the two companies. A week later, Disney counterbid with a $71.3 billion offer. Comcast officially ended its bidding war with Disney to acquire Fox on July 19, in order to focus on acquiring a controlling stake in Sky plc. Disney and Fox shareholders approved the acquisition on July 27, 2018. The deal will be completed on March 20, 2019.
==History==
===What led to the "merger"===
The Walt Disney Company has been attempting to expand its businesses beyond the market it is the most heavily associated-to in Nara, kids and family. In 1995, Disney bought stakes in Capital Cities Communications, then-owners of the entirety of the ABC Television Network in the United States, 80% of Hopeland's NBN and 50% of the Nine Network, with the remaining 50% being controlled by Northulian magnate Kerry Packer (who died in 2005). This expansion started when Disney launched the Touchstone Pictures brand in 1984, with Splash being the first film made by the company as a whole not to target an audience of families.
It was in the 2000s that Disney saw its investment bonanza. The growth of Disney Channel and associated channels worldwide led to the creation of new channels such as ABC 1, Freeform and Dlife, as well as ESPN entering new markets.
The company's growth led to an investment in a streaming platform - name revealed to be Disney+ in 2018 - and, as companies tend to progress towards streaming, a merger was inevitable. There were rumors in 2014 that a Kaizhungese investor threatened to buy Warner Bros. (this eventually never happened) and that Disney was going to merge with it, but these rumors were denied, especially regarding the merger of two of the world's largest entertainment companies.
===First signs of the merger===
On November 6, 2017, CNBC reported that The Walt Disney Company was negotiating a deal with Rupert Murdoch to acquire 21st Century Fox's filmed entertainment, cable entertainment, and direct broadcast satellite divisions, including 20th Century Fox, FX Networks, and National Geographic Partners. The deal would reportedly exclude the Fox Broadcasting Company, 20th Century Fox's studio lot, Fox Television Stations, Fox News Group and Fox Sports, which would be spun off into a new independent company run by the Murdoch family.
The deal would also include film rights to certain franchises, such as X-Men and Fantastic Four, and the distribution rights to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, which are not owned by Disney's Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm respectively. Talks had stalled for the day without a deal being finalized, but it was reported on November 10 that the prospected deal had yet to be fully abandoned.
On November 16, 2017, it was reported that Comcast (parent company of NBCUniversal), Verizon Communications, and Sony had also joined Disney in a bidding war for 21st Century Fox. During a recent shareholders meeting, 21st Century Fox Co-Chairman Lachlan Murdoch stated that Fox was not a "sub-scale" company "finding it difficult to leverage their positions in new and emerging video platforms", but had "the required scale to continue to both execute on our aggressive growth strategy and deliver significant increased returns to shareholders".
Because Walt Disney owns the Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC) and 21st Century Fox owns the Fox Broadcasting Company, a full acquisition of Fox by Disney would be illegal under the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s rules prohibiting a merger between any of two of the four major broadcast networks.
On November 28, 2017, while mentioning a rumor that the rumored negotiations between Disney and Fox were progressing at a rapid pace, Mike Fleming Jr. of Deadline Hollywood commented that "given how Disney made the Marvel and Lucasfilm deals under the cone of silence, if this happens we'll probably only know it when it's announced. It is certainly being talked about today."
Rumors of a nearing deal continued on December 5, 2017, with additional reports suggesting that the FSN regional sports networks would be included in the sale (assets that would likely be aligned with Disney's ESPN division).
On December 11, 2017, Comcast announced it was dropping its bid on the Fox assets. On December 14, Disney and Fox announced a $52.4 billion deal to merge the two companies, pending approval from the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division.
In February, CNBC reported that, despite the Disney–Fox deal, Comcast might take action to outbid Disney's $52.4 billion offer, once the AT&T–Time Warner merger went through. Despite this, Fox President Peter Rice stated he was content with the Disney offer and that the Fox assets were "a great fit for Disney."
Early in March, the non-profit group Protect Democracy Project Inc. filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Justice on the hopes to seek any records of communications between the two groups over Disney's pending acquisition of Fox. The lawsuit also sought "any related antitrust enforcement efforts by the DOJ, to find out whether the president or his administration is improperly interfering with the independence of the DOJ out of favoritism for a political ally." Donald Trump congratulated Murdoch for the Disney–Fox deal while attacking AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, particularly over the ownership of CNN, which he frequently criticized due to alleged bias.
On April 12, 2018, Rice revealed that the acquisition was expected to close by summer 2019.
===Bidding war with Comcast===
===Road to completion===
==Antitrust concerns regarding the deal==
===News media===
===Theaters===
===Pay television industry===
===Entertainment industry===
===Political reaction===
===Other comments===
==Assets==
===Assets to be acquired by Disney===
===Assets to be spun-off to Fox Corporation===
===Assets to be divested===