Morningstar

Will Comcast Rain on the Disney-Fox Parade?

Comcast previously made a similarly sized offer for the Fox assets, but the Murdoch family preferred the Disney deal due to both regulatory and tax issues.

Securities In This Article
Comcast Corp Class A
(CMCSA)
The Walt Disney Co
(DIS)

According to news reports from Reuters and CNBC,

While a ruling allowing the merger of Time Warner and AT&T would appear to be an endorsement of all vertical mergers, we note that Comcast’s potential acquisition of the Fox assets would be both vertical and horizontal in nature due to the firm’s purchase of NBCUniversal in 2011. We believe that regulators could argue that the company already has significant power in both the distribution and creation of content and that the addition of the Fox assets would provide Comcast with the ability to harm consumers.

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About the Author

Neil Macker, CFA

Senior Equity Analyst
More from Author

Neil Macker, CFA, is a senior equity analyst for Morningstar Research Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. He covers media/entertainment and video game publishers.

Before joining Morningstar in 2014, Macker was a senior equity research associate for FBR & Co., where he covered the telecommunications services sector. Previously, he was an associate equity analyst for R.W. Baird and completed the summer associate rotational program at UBS Investment Bank. Before attending business school, Macker held analytical roles at Corporate Executive Board and Nextel.

Macker holds a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College, where he graduated cum laude, and a master’s degree in business administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

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