By Mae Anderson, Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The mouse is chasing the fox.
Disney is upping the ante for Fox, making a $70.3 billion counterbid for Fox's entertainment businesses following Comcast's $65 billion offer for the company.
The battle for Twenty-First Century Fox reflects a new imperative among entertainment and telecommunications firms. They are amassing ever more programming to better compete with technology companies such as Amazon and Netflix for viewers' attention — and dollars. The bidding war comes after AT&T bought Time Warner for $81 billion, after a federal judge rejected the government's antitrust concerns.
Disney's move had been expected ever since Comcast's bid, which was higher than Disney's original offer in December of $52.5 billion in stock. Comcast's offer was all cash. Disney's new offer of $38 per share is half cash and half stock.
In a statement Wednesday Disney said it is raising its offer because Fox's value increased due to "tax reform and operating improvements." It did not mention Comcast's bid.
"After six months of integration planning we're even more enthusiastic and confident in the strategic fit of the assets and the talent at Fox," said Disney CEO Bob Iger in a statement.
The deal would include Fox film and TV studios, some cable networks and international assets, but not Fox News Channel or the Fox television network.
Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch said the company "firmly believes" that the combination with Disney is a good fit.
"We remain convinced that the combination of 21CF's iconic assets, brands and franchises with Disney's will create one of the greatest, most innovative companies in the world," he said in a statement.
But the company also said it is still weighing both offers, and noted that Disney's new bid doesn't have any provisions in it that prevents Fox from considering other offers.
Fox and Disney shareholders had been scheduled to vote on Disney's original bid July 10, but that meeting has been postponed.
AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman in Newark, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More