Walt Disney raises bid for Fox assets to $71.3b, adds cash

WASHINGTON: Walt Disney Co raised its bid for Twenty-First Century Fox Inc assets to $71.3 billion on Wednesday, sweetening its offer with cash as it looks to scuttle Comcast Corp’s $65 billion offer last week. The new cash-or-stock offer is also an incentive for Fox’s largest shareholder, Rupert Murdoch, who owns 17 percent voting shares along with his family and would have been hit with a large capital gains tax bill under Comcast’s all-cash offer. Disney’s previous offer was all stock. Disney’s latest move raises the hurdle for Comcast, which now has to decide whether it is feasible to come back with a higher bid. Disney and Comcast are battling to win Fox’s movie and television studios at a time when legacy media and distribution companies are looking to expand to better compete with newer media firms like Netflix Inc that sell their content directly to viewers.