A Disney+ streaming service sign is pictured at the D23 Expo, billed as the "largest Disney fan event in the world," at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, in August. Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday it signed up 10 million subscribers for Disney+ within a day of launching its new streaming television service. | AFP-JIJI

Business

Brazil antitrust regulator to reassess Disney-Fox deal because divestiture has yet to happen

Reuters

SAO PAULO – Brazil’s antitrust regulator said on Wednesday it will reassess Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) $71 billion purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA.O) because the divestiture requested by the regulator as a condition for the merger of U.S. media companies has not happened yet.

“The deal approved in February was contingent on the sale of the Fox Sports channel. As the sale was not finalized, the case will be re-examined,” the regulator known as “Cade” said in a statement.

The regulator said it requested the sale of Fox Sports to maintain the same level of competition in the Brazilian market after the deal, with three different sports options: SporTV, ESPN and the service provided by a new company with the Fox assets.

The companies “tried” to comply with the request, but had not succeeded, the regulator said.

Cade head Alexandre Barreto said the reassessment will consider “other options,” without giving details.

The original decision in Brazil was similar to one by the Mexican telecoms regulator IFT, which also requested in March the sale of Fox sports channels in the country.

GET THE BEST OF THE JAPAN TIMES IN FIVE EASY PIECES WITH TAKE 5

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

LATEST BUSINESS STORIES

A gopher tortoise lumbers across the forest floor at Reed Bingham State Park near Adel, Georgia, in 2004. The Conservation Fund and Open Space Institute announced Friday they had bought a 16,000-acre (65-sq.-km) site along the Satilla River east of Woodbine, Georgia, that they described as one of the largest unprotected open space parcels along the southeast Atlantic coast.

Conservation groups make major land buy on Georgia coast, plan to sell site to state as wildlife ...: Conservation groups have purchased a swath of land in Georgia that they describe as one of the largest unprotected open space parcels along the southeast Atlantic coast. The Conservation Fund an...

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani (left) receives from President Hassan Rouhani (right) the new budget for the financial year starting in late March 2020 in Tehran on Sunday. Rouhani described it as a "budget of resistance" against crippling sanctions imposed by arch-enemy the United States.

Iran says new budget bucks U.S. oil embargo, uses Russian loan: Iran's president said on Sunday his country will depend less on oil revenue next year, in a new budget that is designed to resist crippling U.S. trade embargoes. Iran is in the grip of an econom...

Holiday delivery: SpaceX capsule arrives at ISS with 'mighty mice,' worms, robot: SpaceX made an early holiday delivery to the International Space Station on Sunday, dropping off super muscular "mighty mice," pest-killing worms and a smart, empathetic robot. The station comma...