21st Century Fox | |
Company type | Public |
Nasdaq: TFCFA, TFCF | |
ISIN | |
Industry | Media Entertainment |
Predecessor | News Corporation |
Founded | June 28, 2013 |
Founder | Rupert Murdoch |
Defunct | March 20, 2019 |
Fate | List
|
Successors |
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Headquarters | 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York City, New York , U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
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Revenue | US$30.400 billion (2018) |
US$4.410 billion (2018) | |
US$4.464 billion (2018) | |
Total assets | US$53.831 billion (2018) |
Total equity | US$19.564 billion (2018) |
Owner | Murdoch family (17% equity; 39% voting power) |
Number of employees | 22,400 (2018) |
Divisions | |
Subsidiaries |
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Website | 21cf.com (archived March 19, 2019) |
Footnotes /references [1] [2] [3] |
Twenty First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, following a spin-off of the publishing assets of the old News Corporation as News Corp.
21st Century Fox was the legal successor to News Corporation dealing primarily in the film and television industries. It was the United States' fourth-largest media conglomerate by revenue, up until its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in 2019. The other company, News Corp, holds Rupert Murdoch's print interests and other media assets in Australia (both owned by him and his family via a family trust with 39% interest in each). Murdoch was co-executive chairman, while his sons Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch were co-executive chairman and CEO, respectively.
21st Century Fox's assets included the Fox Entertainment Group—owners of the 20th Century Fox film studio (the company's partial namesake), the Fox television network, and a majority stake in National Geographic Partners—the commercial media arm of the National Geographic Society, among other assets. It also had significant foreign operations, including the prominent Indian television channel operator Star India. The company ranked No. 109 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. [4]
On July 27, 2018, 21st Century Fox shareholders agreed to sell the company to Disney for $71.3 billion. The sale covered the majority of 21CF's entertainment assets, including 20th Century Fox, FX Networks, and National Geographic Partners among others. Following a bidding war with 21CF, Sky plc (a British media group which 21CF held a stake in) was acquired separately by Comcast, while 21CF's regional Fox Sports Networks were sold to Sinclair Broadcast Group to comply with antitrust rulings. [1] The remainder, consisting primarily of the Fox and MyNetworkTV networks, and 21CF's local station, news and national sports assets, were spun out into a new company named Fox Corporation, which began trading on March 19, 2019. Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox was closed on March 20 of the same year. After that, all of the included 21CF assets were scattered across the divisions of Disney. [5]
21st Century Fox was formed by the splitting of entertainment and media properties from News Corporation. In February 2012, Natalie Ravitz accepted a position to become Rupert Murdoch's Chief of Staff at News Corporation. [6]
News Corporation's board approved the split on May 24, 2013, while shareholders approved the split on June 11, 2013; [7] the company completed the split on June 28 and formally started trading on NASDAQ on July 1. [8] [9] [10]
Plans for the split were originally announced on June 28, 2012, while additional details and the working name of the new company were unveiled on December 3, 2012. [11] [12] [13]
Murdoch stated that performing this split would "unlock the true value of both companies and their distinct assets, enabling investors to benefit from the separate strategic opportunities resulting from more focused management of each division." The move also came in the wake of a series of scandals that had damaged the reputation of the company's publishing operations in the United Kingdom. [9] [11] The split was structured so that the old News Corporation would change its name to 21st Century Fox and spin-off its publishing assets into a "new" News Corporation. [10] [14] [15]
While the company was originally announced as the Fox Group, on April 16, 2013, Murdoch announced the new name as a way to leverage the already established 20th Century Fox brand name. Its logo was officially unveiled on May 9, 2013, featuring a modernized version of the iconic Fox searchlights designed by Pentagram. [16] [17]
However, the 21st Century Fox brand does not extend to the existing 20th Century Fox division (which remains under its original name). [18]
The formation of 21st Century Fox was officially finalized on June 28, 2013. It formally began trading on NASDAQ and the Australian Securities Exchange on July 1, 2013, with its executives including Rupert Murdoch being chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, while Chase Carey took the posts of president and chief operating officer, with Co-chairman and Co-CEO positions were created in 2014 and later filled by Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch, respectively, both sons of Rupert Murdoch. [19] [20] [21] [22]
On January 8, 2014, Rupert Murdoch announced plans to delist 21st Century Fox's shares from the Australian Securities Exchange, in favor of solely trading on the NASDAQ. Its listing in Australia was a holdover from its period as News Corporation, and 21st Century Fox has relatively little presence in Australia, unlike News Corp. Murdoch stated that the changes, which were expected to be complete by June 2014, would "simplify the capital and operating structure" of 21st Century Fox and provide "improved liquidity" to shareholders. [22] [23] Also that month, the company acquired a majority ownership in YES Network, a New York regional sports network founded by the New York Yankees. [24]
In June 2014, 21st Century Fox made a bid to acquire Time Warner, which had similarly spun off its publishing assets, for $80 billion in a cash and stock deal. The deal, which was rejected by Time Warner's board of directors in July 2014, would have also involved the sale of CNN to ease antitrust issues. [25] On August 5, 2014, 21st Century Fox announced it had withdrawn its bid for Time Warner. [26] The company's stock had fallen sharply since the bid was announced, prompting directors to announce 21st Century Fox would buy back $6 billion of its shares over the following 12 months. [27]
On July 25, 2014, 21st Century Fox announced the sale of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland to BSkyB for $9 billion, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. [28] Fox would use the money from the sale, along with $25 billion it received from Goldman Sachs, to attempt another bid for Time Warner. [29]
In December 2014, Fox-owned television studio Shine Group merged with Apollo Global Management's Endemol and Core Media Group to form Endemol Shine Group, which was jointly owned by 21st Century Fox and Apollo. [30]
On July 1, 2015, Lachlan Murdoch was elevated to Co-Executive Chairman alongside his father and James Murdoch replaced his father as CEO of the company. [31] Former COO Chase Carey became Executive Vice-chairman. [32]
On September 9, 2015, 21st Century Fox announced a for-profit joint venture with the National Geographic Society, which called National Geographic Partners, which took ownership of all of National Geographic media and consumer businesses, including National Geographic magazine, and the National Geographic-branded television channels that were already run as a joint venture with Fox. 21st Century Fox holds a 73% stake in the company. [33] [34]
On December 9, 2016, 21st Century Fox announced it had made an offer to acquire the 61% share of Sky plc that it did not already own. [35] [36] [37] The company was valued at £18.5 billion. The deal was approved by the European Commission on April 7, 2017, [38] followed by Ireland's Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment on June 27. [39] However, the deal has become subject to scrutiny and an extended regulatory review in the United Kingdom, over concerns surrounding the plurality of British news media that will be owned by the Murdoch family post-merger (counting Sky News, as well as News Corp's newspapers and recent acquisition of radio station operator Wireless Group), and violations of British news broadcasting regulations connected to Sky's former carriage of Fox News Channel in the country. [40] [41] [42] [43] However, a bidding war ensued over the company; in September 2018, Comcast won a regulator-mandated auction with a bid of £17.28 per-share. [44] [45] [46] On September 26, 2018, 21st Century Fox subsequently announced its intent to sell all of its shares in Sky plc to Comcast for £12 billion. [47] [48] On October 4, 2018, 21st Century Fox completed the sale of their stake to Comcast, giving the latter a 76.8% controlling stake. [49]
The Kingdom Holding Company, owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, sold its minority stake in 21st Century Fox during the fiscal quarter ending September 2017. It previously held a 6% stake, which had been reduced to around 5% in 2015. The valuation of the shares, or who they were sold to, is unknown; Al-Waleed was the company's largest single shareholder behind the Murdoch family. The sale was reported after Al-Waleed was arrested in early-November 2017 as part of an anti-corruption probe by the Saudi government. [50]
On December 14, 2017, after rumors of such a sale, The Walt Disney Company began its acquisition of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion after the spin-off of certain businesses, pending regulatory approval. [51] [52] [53] 21st Century Fox president Peter Rice stated that he expected the sale to be completed by mid-2019. [54]
Under the terms of the deal, 21st Century Fox spun off an entity that was initially being referred to as "New Fox", consisting of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News, Fox Business Network, and the national operations of Fox Sports (such as Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, and Big Ten Network, but excluding its regional sports networks), and Disney acquired the remainder of 21st Century Fox. [51] This included key entertainment assets such as the 20th Century Fox film studio and its subsidiaries; a stake in Hulu; the U.S. pay television subsidiaries FX Networks, Fox Sports Networks and National Geographic Partners; and international operations of Fox Networks Group as well as Star India. The acquisition was primarily intended to bolster two over-the-top content endeavors—ESPN+ and Disney+. [55] [56] Disney will lease the 20th Century Fox backlot in Century City, Los Angeles for seven years. [57]
The proposed transaction raised antitrust issues, due to concerns that it could have led to a tangible loss in competition in the film and sports broadcasting industries. [58] [59] Several legal experts and industry analysts expressed the opinion that the transaction was likely to receive regulatory approval, but would be scrutinized by regulators. [59] [60]
In February 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that Comcast, the owner of NBCUniversal, was considering a counter-offer. Despite initially bidding $60 billion earlier, Fox had rejected Comcast's offer due to the possibility of antitrust concerns. [61] [62] [63] On May 5, 2018, it was reported that Comcast was preparing to make an unsolicited, all-cash counteroffer to acquire the 21st Century Fox's assets Disney has offered to purchase, contingent on the outcome of an antitrust lawsuit AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner. [64] [65] [66] [67] Comcast confirmed on May 23, 2018, that it was "considering, and is in advanced stages of preparing, an offer for the businesses that Fox has agreed to sell to Disney." [68]
A shareholder vote on the sale was scheduled for special shareholder meetings by Fox and Disney on July 10, 2018, at the New York Hilton Midtown and New Amsterdam Theatre respectively, although Fox warned that it might "postpone or adjourn" the meeting if Comcast were to follow through with its intent to make a counter-offer. It was also reported that Disney was preparing an all-cash offer of its own to counter Comcast's bid. [69] [70] [71]
On June 13, 2018, the day after AT&T was given an approval to merge with Time Warner, Comcast officially announced a $65 billion counter-offer to acquire the 21st Century Fox's assets Disney had offered to purchase. [72] However, on June 20, 2018, Disney agreed to increase its bid to a $71.3 billion cash-and-stock offer. [73] [74] Fox agreed to the new offer. [75]
The proposed purchase was given antitrust approval by the Department of Justice on June 27, 2018, under the condition that Disney divest all of Fox's regional sports networks. The networks could either be divested to third-parties, or retained by "New Fox". [76] On July 19, 2018, Comcast announced it was dropping its bid for Fox in order to focus on its bid for Sky. On July 27, 2018, it was reported that Fox and Disney shareholders had "overwhelmingly" approved the proposed purchase. The acquisition was expected to be completed by late January 2019, after remaining regulatory approvals are granted in China and the European Union. [77] [78] [79]
In October 2018, it was reported that the new, post-merger organizational structure of "New Fox" would be implemented by January 1, 2019, ahead of the closure of the Disney sale (which was still expected to occur within the early of March). [80]
On November 6, 2018, the European Commission approved the sale, pursuant to the divestment of A&E Networks properties in Europe deemed to overlap with those of Fox. [81] At a shareholders' meeting the following week, it was revealed that the new company would simply be known as "Fox". [82] On November 19, 2018, the deal was approved unconditionally by Chinese regulators. [83]
On January 7, 2019, 21st Century Fox filed the registration statement for "New Fox", under the name Fox Corporation, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. [84] In an SEC filing, Fox stated that it did not intend to bid for its former regional sports networks. [85]
In February 27, 2019, it was reported by Bloomberg that Disney had also planned to divest the international Fox Sports operations in Brazil and Latin America to secure antitrust clearance in Brazil and Mexico, as they both compete with ESPN International properties in their respective regions. [86] On February 27, 2019, the sale was approved by Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), with Disney having agreed to the expected divestiture of Fox Sports Latin America. CADE coordinated with regulators in Mexico and Chile in evaluating the transaction. Mexico approved the sale on March 12, 2019, with similar concessions. [87] Clearance in Brazil and Mexico was reported to be the last major hurdles for the sale. [88]
On March 12, 2019, Disney officially announced that the sale would be completed on March 20, 2019. [89] On March 19, 2019, the spin-off of 21st Century Fox into Fox Corporation was completed in preparation for final consummation of the sale. [90] [91] On the next day, the sale was completed. [92] Under the terms of acquisition, Disney would phase out Fox brand usage by 2024. [93]
The sale to Disney put around $2 billion into each of the pockets of Rupert Murdoch's offspring, including Lachlan, James, their sister Elisabeth, and half-sister Prudence MacLeod. [94]
21st Century Fox primarily consisted of the media and broadcasting properties that were owned by its predecessor, such as the Fox Entertainment Group and Star India. News Corporation's broadcasting properties in Australia, such as Foxtel and Fox Sports Australia, remain a part of the newly renamed News Corp Australia—which was spun off with the current incarnation of News Corp and was not a part of 21st Century Fox. [14]
These units were transferred to the Fox Corporation, not Disney.
Cable TV channels owned (in whole or part) and operated by 21st Century Fox include:
Sky Group Limited is a British media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a subsidiary of the American conglomerate Comcast, and headquartered in London, England. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Sky is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue, with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019. The company is primarily involved in satellite television, producing and broadcasting. The current CEO is Dana Strong.
Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on March 20, 2019, following its acquisition of 21st Century Fox. A condition of that acquisition imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice required Disney to sell the regional networks by June 18, 2019, ninety days after the completion of its acquisition. Disney subsequently agreed to sell the networks to Sinclair; the transaction was completed on August 22, 2019. The networks continued to use the Fox Sports name only under a transitional license agreement while rebranding options were explored. A rebranding cross-partnership with Bally's Corporation took effect on March 31, 2021, and the networks were rebranded as Bally Sports, ending the Fox Sports Networks branding after 25 years.
The original incarnation of News Corporation was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Prior to its split in 2013, it was the world's largest media company in terms of total assets and the world's fourth largest media group in terms of revenue. It had become a media powerhouse since its inception, dominating the news, television, film, and print industries.
20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film production and distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of The Walt Disney Company. It is headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles, which is leased from Fox Corporation. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributes and markets the films produced by this studio in theatrical markets.
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. In 2019, Sky News was named Royal Television Society News Channel of the Year, the 12th time it has held the award. The channel and its live streaming world news is available on its website, TV platforms, and online platforms such as YouTube and Apple TV, and various mobile devices and digital media players.
Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings, is an American multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate incorporated and headquartered in Philadelphia.
Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American independent film production and distribution company owned by Walt Disney Studios sub-division of Disney Entertainment, a business segment of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures for 20th Century Fox, the studio focuses primarily on producing, distributing, and acquiring specialty films.
James Rupert Jacob Murdoch is a British-American businessman. He is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.
Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian satellite television platform owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. Sky Italia also broadcasts three national free-to-air television channels: TV8, Cielo, and Sky TG24.
Sky Deutschland GmbH, branded as Sky, is a German media company that operates a direct broadcast satellite Pay TV platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It provides a collection of basic and premium digital subscription television channels of different categories via satellite and cable television.
20th Television, Inc. is an American television production company which is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of the Disney Entertainment division of The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment distributes the television series produced by 20th Television in home media formats through the 20th Century Home Entertainment banner.
Fox Networks Group (FNG), formerly known as Fox International Channels (FIC), was the television networks division of News Corporation and later 21st Century Fox that operated from 1993 to 2021. It oversaw the production, broadcasting and distribution of the Fox, Fox Sports, National Geographic and BabyTV brands in the United States and over 1.725 billion households globally. The division also operated video on demand services Fox Play and Fox Plus.
Controversy over Sky's operation of pay TV services on Freeview began in 2006. It was claimed at various times that Sky was operating in an anti-competitive way in the British pay TV market. Similar concerns arose about Sky's procurement, distribution and charging levels of films on its Sky Movies service. Sky was exonerated by the Competition Commission in August 2012. Sky was found to have overcharged for its Sky Sports channels, and was ordered in 2010 to reduce its charges for these channels. Its terms for supplying the sports channels to other companies were also challenged in 2010–11; some of the complaints were upheld by the regulatory authorities, others were not. Another challenge, in 2009, concerned Sky's charges for listing free-to-air channels on its electronic program guide (EPG).
Peter Rice is a British producer and media executive. He is the former chairman of Disney General Entertainment Content for The Walt Disney Company and former president of 21st Century Fox, where he worked from 1989-2019.
News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on June 28, 2013, following a spin-off of the media outlets of the original News Corporation as 21st Century Fox (21CF). Operating across digital real estate information, news media, book publishing, and cable television, News Corp's notable assets include Dow Jones & Company, which is the publisher of The Wall Street Journal; News UK, publisher of The Sun and The Times; News Corp Australia; and REA Group, operator of realestate.com.au, realtor.com, and book publisher HarperCollins.
The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company was announced on December 14, 2017, and was completed on March 20, 2019. Among other key assets, the acquisition included the 20th Century Fox film and television studios, U.S. cable channels such as FX, Fox Networks Group, a 73% stake in National Geographic Partners, Indian television broadcaster Star India, and a 30% stake in Hulu. Most remaining assets were not part of the deal and they were spun off into a new company called Fox Corporation on March 19, 2019. Other 21st Century Fox assets such as the Fox Sports Networks and Sky were divested and sold off to Sinclair and Comcast, respectively.
Fox Corporation is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. Incorporated in Delaware, it was formed as the portion of 21st Century Fox that was not acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2019. The company is controlled by the Murdoch family via a family trust with 39.6% ownership share, and by Rupert Murdoch himself to the effect of almost 40%.
The Fox Entertainment Group (FEG) was an American entertainment company specialized in filmed entertainment owned by 21st Century Fox. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the group's assets were dispersed to various Disney units. The film studios 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox 2000 Pictures were transferred to Walt Disney Studios, while Fox Star Studios transferred to Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International.
The 2019 merger of CBS Corporation and Viacom was announced on August 13, 2019, and was completed on December 4, 2019. The merger of equals reunited CBS Corporation and Viacom into a single company known as ViacomCBS after their separation from the first incarnation of Viacom on December 31, 2005. Both companies were owned by the theater company National Amusements, which remains the owner of the merged entity.
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