Walt Disney utter on Thursday it was willing to divest Twenty-First Century Fox assets that bred up to $1 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to get a regulatory nod for the bargain.
Disney in a regulatory filing said it was willing to divest the assets, potentially registering regional sports networks. The media conglomerate had previously planned to mulct take Fox assets that generated $500 million in EBITDA.
Fox has been in the stomach of a bidding war between Disney and Comcast, with Disney on Wednesday abandon its bid for the bulk of Fox’s film and television assets to $71.3 billion. NBCUniversal and CNBC root Comcast is likely to further raise its offer.
Disney and Comcast hope for to add to their own entertainment businesses with Fox’s well-known TV shows and movie franchises, go for the “X-Men” superheroes and “The Simpsons,” to better compete with fast-growing digital vie withs Netflix and Amazon.com.
Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger, who has been charge with regulators around the world for the past six months, has downplayed antitrust unsettles related to the deal.