Suggesting that MCU and X-Men crossover could happen sooner than later, CNBC reports Disney has been in talks to acquire much of 21st Century Fox. In a press release today, the outlet indicated 21st Century Fox is looking to sell off most of its properties to Disney in an effort to focus “tightly” on news and sports. There’s a caveat that the talks have been going on and off for weeks now, and the merger is far from a done deal. In fact, the House Of Mouse and home of News Corporation aren’t currently in any negotiations, but CNBC notes that there is a “growing belief amongst [Fox’s] senior manage that scale in media is of immediate importance and that there is not a path to gain that scale in entertainment through acquisition.” We think that goes to CNBC’s other point about the whole narrowing of focus.
Citing the “changing landscape” we’ve heard so much about, 21st Century Fox doesn’t believe it has the resources to keep up, but Disney—which picked up Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, and Pixar since the advent of Facebook—does. And this would also be a win for Disney, obviously, as the acquisition would allow the conglomerate to “take control of another movie studio and significant TV production assets,” which would certainly help get make its forthcoming standalone streaming service an easier sell. But Disney’s acquisitions wouldn’t and couldn’t include the Fox network, since it already owns one broadcast network. Fox Sports and the local affiliates aren’t up for sale either. Fox declined to comment on the merger talks with Deadline, while Disney couldn’t be reached ahead of this writing.