What Does Comcast's $31 Billion Sky Bid Mean for Fox and Disney?

Comcast has thrown its hat in the ring with a $31 billion bid for U.K. broadcaster Sky, but the question now is whether that hat is actually a wrench for Disney and 21st Century Fox?

Analysts have speculated on what Comcast’s next big move could be for the past year. As video growth slows, the media company is in need of an acquisition to give to it some juice and Sky is an attractive asset because of its 23 million subscriber-foothold in Europe.

During Comcast’s quarterly conference call with investors in February, CEO Brian Roberts said that Comcast has “admired Sky for a long time.”

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Disney CEO Bob Iger has also been eyeing Sky, even calling the company a crown jewel. Fox owns 39 percent of Sky, which is an important part of Disney’s $52.4 billion bid for some of Fox’s assets.

“Based on my perception of how Disney views this asset, I don’t think they’ll just walk away,” CFRA Research analyst Tuna Amobi told TheWrap. “I think they’re likely to counter bid, which will probably lead to a bidding war.”

Also Read: Stocks Soar for Comcast and Sky After $31 Billion Offer

Disney has previously indicated that they could even make a separate offer for Sky aside from its pending Fox deal, Amobi said. The company could pursue that, or even go back and renegotiate its deal with Fox.

Comcast’s bid puts both Disney and Fox in tough situations. It raises the stakes for Disney’s Fox bid, but Amobi said it likely doesn’t make the deal less attractive.

A Fox insider told TheWrap that the deal with Disney isn’t contingent on the Sky outcome. “We can do the current deal with current 39 percent — or 100 percent,” they said.

Also Read: Comcast Tops Q1 Earnings Estimates Thanks to Winter Olympics and Super Bowl

Comcast has been linked with Disney, Fox and Sky since Disney announced its bid for Fox’s assets in December. At the time, BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield posited that Comcast was a more logical buyer considering its position.

“Comcast could pay significantly more for Fox’s to-be-sold assets than Disney,” Greenfield said. “With Sky as the largest asset being sold by Fox, the synergies with Comcast are significant. The two companies could leverage their set-top box technology, buy original and library content for a wider subscriber base and reach more global deals with third-parties who want to be on their set-top platform (such as a Netflix or Amazon) whereas Disney has no pay TV business in the US to leverage off, nor any experience operating a pay TV business.”

Eric Schiffer, CEO of The Patriarch Organization and chairman of Reputation Management Consultants, told TheWrap that if Comcast could buy Fox, it would have. “But that would be like watching cobras circle each other. Murdoch would rather chew glass than sell to Comcast,” he said.

Also Read: Disney Must Make Offer to Buy All of Sky If Fox's Own Deal Falls Through

Comcast’s bid for 100 percent of Sky values the company significantly higher than Fox’s offer for the 61 percent of the company it doesn’t own.

The ball is in now Disney’s court, but how this shakes out also depends on the regulatory perception in the U.K.

“We’ll have to wait to see what happens,” Amobi said about the battle for Sky. “It’s shaping up to be a highly contested scenario.”

Disney, Comcast and Sky did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

14 Billion-Dollar Acquisitions Before AT&T-Time Warner (Photos)

Think $85 billion is a lot of cash? Take a tour through the lurid amounts of money dropped on American media and content machines over the years.
1999: Disney Buys ABC
The alliance is such a potent brand that it's hard to imagine them as solo entities, but the $19.5 billion sale gave the Disney company an iconic TV brand to call its own.
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1999: Clear Channel buys AMFM Inc
The radio giant paid $20.6 billion for its rival AMFM, their 830 radio stations, 425,000 billboards and 19 TV stations per Forbes.
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1999: Viacom Buys CBS
Fifteen years ago, the media giant acquired the TV network for $34.1 billion. While the companies would split in 2006, always remember -- history repeats itself.
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2000: Time Warner and AOL Merge
It's often referred to as one of the most disastrous mergers in history. The $186.2 billion price tag seemed visionary at the time, but quickly devolved into a corporate culture way... and the of the dot-com collapse.
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2006: Disney Buys Pixar
In the first of a series of key moves from Disney CEO Bob Iger -- ones that would ensure long-term health and eventually see the company take record-breaking market share -- Steve Jobs was convinced to entrust the animation studio to them for a reported $7.4 billion.
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2009: Disney Buys Marvel
Iger's $4 billion purchase of the comic book studio changed the industry, secured Robert Downey Jr. as the highest paid actor in Hollywood and made a new constellation of stars and film franchises.
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2012: Disney Buys Lucasfilm
Bob Iger's hat trick was completed with a major coup in landing the "Star Wars" universe for $4 billion, which resulted in the No. 3 all-time top grossing film, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
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2013: Comcast Buys Remaining Stake in NBC
After purchasing a majority stake in 2011 for $30 billion, Comcast paid another $16.7 billion to wholly own the TV brand, film studio Universal and its California and Florida theme parks.
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2013: Yahoo Buys Tumblr
It's a relatively small price for a media acquisition, but spend-happy Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer raised a lot of eyebrows by paying $1 billion for the blogging platform Tumblr.
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2014: Facebook Buys WhatApp
While this is a straight-up tech acquisition, it's interesting to note that Facebook paid a staggering $22 billion for the European-based WhatsApp, a mobile application that lets users text for free over WiFi, to bolster their own messaging app. The company has repeatedly said it doesn't care to acquire content engines, but this signals a strong urge to level competition if they ever change their minds.
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2015: Activision Blizzard Buys King Mobile
The video game company literally spent $5.9 billion on fun and games. Mobile game company King counts the most successful app of all time, Candy Crush, and legacy social games like Bubble Witch in its stable. Now Activision gets to develop properties like a just-sold CBS game show based on Candy Crush.
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2016: Comcast Buys Dreamworks
After years of trying to offload his baby, Jeffrey Katzenberg fetched $3.8 billion for DWA and its respective franchises, like "Kung Fu Panda."
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2015: Dalian Wanda Buys Legendary Entertainment
A production company fetching $3.5 billion in a sale was not just jaw-dropping, it was an airhorn that the Chinese invasion into Hollywood had begun. It's also currently the benchmark for what many call inflated valuation... but Wanda's pockets are as deep as their patience is long.
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2016: Verizon Buys Yahoo
In a major deal that’s yet to formally close, Verizon is ponying up $4.83 billion for Yahoo’s core business, which includes advertising, content, search and mobile division.
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