DISNEY STALKS A FOX FAMILY CHANNEL DEAL WOULD EXTEND REACH.Byline: Daily News BURBANK - The Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney Co. has opened negotiations to buy Fox Family Worldwide Inc. from News Corp. and Saban Entertainment  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. - a $5.3
billion deal that would give Disney instant access to 80 million homes.
Sources familiar with the negotiations told The Wall Street Journal the deal could be announced as early as Monday. Both sides were to continue bargaining through the weekend. Disney would pay the co-owners of Fox Family $3.3 billion in cash and assume $2 billion in debt. The Journal reported the story late Friday in its online edition. John Dreyer John Louis Emil Dreyer (February 13 1852 – September 14 1926) was a Danish-Irish astronomer. He was born Johan Ludvig Emil Dreyer in Copenhagen. In 1874, at the age of 22, he went to Ireland to work as the assistant of Lord Rosse (the son and successor of the , a Walt Disney Co. spokesman, was unable to provide any details Friday afternoon. ``I'm the one to tell you that there's no comment,'' he said. ``I'm sorry, but I just can't help you.'' Fox spokeswoman Nicole Nichols said she could neither confirm nor deny a pending announcement. ``We haven't scheduled anything,'' she said. Representatives at Saban Entertainment, which owns half of the Family Channel, were not available to comment. A source at Disney said the deal has been discussed openly but details have been scant in the last couple of weeks. Analyst Art Rockwell of Burbank-based Rockwell Capital Management said he's puzzled by the deal. ``Why Disney is spending that money to expand in an area where they have a major share of the marketplace baffles me a a little bit. (News Corp. Chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. ) Rupert Murdoch and his investment bankers conned (Disney Chairman and CEO Michael) Eisner and his investment bankers on this one, I think,'' he said. The deal would give Disney a huge boost in distribution power. The Fox Family Channel is a part of most American cable systems' basic subscription service. Often reprogrammed, the network shows a mix of G-rated original sit-coms and reruns but could provide Disney instant access to millions of customers as it prepares to launch another network, Playhouse Disney For the Playhouse Disney in other countries, see Playhouse Disney around the world. Playhouse Disney is the brand name for Disney Channel's preschool programs, often airing as its own channel outside of the United States. , geared toward preschoolers. ``Disney still has not lost sight of its core audience and core customer base,'' said Kevin Skislock, an entertainment analyst with Laguna Research Partners in Irvine. ``The deal says (Disney) is willing to spend in an aggressive way to retain that audience,'' Skislock said. Fox Kids Network, which provides a block of children's programming, would remain under Fox's control. Still unclear is what would happen to the daily religious programming on the Family Channel. Evangelist Pat Robertson agreed to sell his cable holdings to Fox on the condition they carry his ``700 Club'' program. Disney's acquisition of Fox would not be surprising; the film-TV-theme park behemoth behemoth (bē`hĭmŏth, bĭhē`–) [Heb.,=plural of beast], large, fanciful primeval monster, like Leviathan, evoking the hippopotamus mentioned in the Book of Job. was widely considered the front runner when Fox put the Family Channel up for sale in May. Other possible bidders include AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. Time Warner, whose holdings include the vast Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . cartoon library and The Cartoon Network; CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. parent Viacom; and cable leader Comcast. |
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