Walt Disney Co has struck a deal to buy film, television and international businesses from Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. for $52.4 billion in stock, giving the world's largest entertainment company an arsenal of shows and movies to combat growing digital rivals Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
The deal brings to a close more than half a century of expansion by Murdoch, 86, who turned a single Australian newspaper he inherited from his father at the age of 21 into one of the world's most important global news and film conglomerates. The new, slimmed down Fox will focus on TV news and sports.
Early indications are that the deal will not face strong resistance from antitrust regulators as AT&T Corp.'s bid to acquire Time Warner Inc. has done. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has attacked the AT&T deal, spoke to Murdoch on Thursday and congratulated him on the deal, according to the White House.