21st Century Fox
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), also known simply as Fox, was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, following a spin-off of the publishing assets of the old News Corporation as News Corp.
This article is about the corporation that was active from 2013 until 2019. For other uses, see 21st Century Fox (disambiguation). For the corporation that replaced 21st Century Fox after the sale, see Fox Corporation.21st Century Fox
NASDAQ: FOXA, FOX
June 28, 2013
March 20, 2019
-
- The company and most of its assets were sold to The Walt Disney Company.
- Portions of assets sold to Comcast, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Yankee Global Enterprises.
- The remainder of 21st Century Fox was renamed Fox Corporation.
- The Walt Disney Company (Entertainment assets, cable networks and international networks)
- Fox Corporation (US broadcasting, news and national sports assets)
Worldwide
- Rupert Murdoch (executive chairman)
- Lachlan Murdoch (executive chairman)
- James Murdoch (CEO)
- Peter Rice (president)
US$4.410 billion (2018)
US$4.464 billion (2018)
US$53.831 billion (2018)
US$19.564 billion (2018)
Murdoch family (39% voting power)
22,400 (2018)
- Endemol Shine Group (50%)
- Star India
- Tata Sky (30%)
- TrueX
21cf.com
(archived March 19, 2019)
21st Century Fox was the legal successor to News Corporation dealing primarily in the film and television industries. It was the United States' fourth-largest media conglomerate by revenue, up until its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in 2019. The other company, News Corp, holds Rupert Murdoch's print interests and other media assets in Australia (both owned by him and his family via a family trust with 39% interest in each). Murdoch was co-executive chairman, while his sons Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch were co-executive chairman and CEO, respectively.
21st Century Fox's assets included the Fox Entertainment Group—owners of the 20th Century Fox film studio (the company's partial namesake), the Fox television network, and a majority stake in National Geographic Partners—the commercial media arm of the National Geographic Society, among other assets. It also had significant foreign operations, including the prominent Indian television channel operator Star India. The company ranked No. 109 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[4]
On July 27, 2018, 21st Century Fox shareholders agreed to sell the company to Disney for $71.3 billion. The sale covered the majority of 21CF's entertainment assets, including 20th Century Fox, FX Networks, and National Geographic Partners among others. Following a bidding war with 21CF, Sky plc (a British media group which 21CF held a stake in) was acquired separately by Comcast, while 21CF's regional Fox Sports Networks were sold to Sinclair Broadcast Group to comply with antitrust rulings.[1] The remainder, consisting primarily of the Fox and MyNetworkTV networks, and 21CF's local station, news and national sports assets, were spun out into a new company named Fox Corporation, which began trading on March 19, 2019. Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox was closed on March 20 of the same year. After that, all of the included 21CF assets were scattered across the divisions of Disney.[5]
History[edit]
Formation[edit]
21st Century Fox was formed by the splitting of entertainment and media properties from News Corporation. In February 2012, Natalie Ravitz accepted a position to become Rupert Murdoch's Chief of Staff at News Corporation.[6]
News Corporation's board approved the split on May 24, 2013, while shareholders approved the split on June 11, 2013;[7] the company completed the split on June 28 and formally started trading on NASDAQ on July 1.[8][9][10]
Plans for the split were originally announced on June 28, 2012, while additional details and the working name of the new company were unveiled on December 3, 2012.[11][12][13]
Murdoch stated that performing this split would "unlock the true value of both companies and their distinct assets, enabling investors to benefit from the separate strategic opportunities resulting from more focused management of each division." The move also came in the wake of a series of scandals that had damaged the reputation of the company's publishing operations in the United Kingdom.[9][11] The split was structured so that the old News Corporation would change its name to 21st Century Fox and spin-off its publishing assets into a "new" News Corporation.[10][14][15]
While the company was originally announced as the Fox Group, on April 16, 2013, Murdoch announced the new name as a way to leverage the already established 20th Century Fox brand name. Its logo was officially unveiled on May 9, 2013, featuring a modernized version of the iconic Fox searchlights designed by Pentagram.[16][17]
However, the 21st Century Fox brand does not extend to the existing 20th Century Fox division (which remains under its original name).[18]
The formation of 21st Century Fox was officially finalized on June 28, 2013. It formally began trading on NASDAQ and the Australian Securities Exchange on July 1, 2013, with its executives including Rupert Murdoch being chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, while Chase Carey took the posts of president and chief operating officer, with Co-chairman and Co-CEO positions were created in 2014 and later filled by Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch, respectively, both sons of Rupert Murdoch.[19][20].[21][22]
Subsequent history[edit]
On January 8, 2014, Rupert Murdoch announced plans to delist 21st Century Fox's shares from the Australian Securities Exchange, in favor of solely trading on the NASDAQ. Its listing in Australia was a holdover from its period as News Corporation, and 21st Century Fox has relatively little presence in Australia, unlike News Corp. Murdoch stated that the changes, which were expected to be complete by June 2014, would "simplify the capital and operating structure" of 21st Century Fox and provide "improved liquidity" to shareholders.[22][23] Also that month, the company acquired a majority ownership in YES Network, a New York regional sports network founded by the New York Yankees.[24]
In June 2014, 21st Century Fox made a bid to acquire Time Warner, which had similarly spun off its publishing assets, for $80 billion in a cash and stock deal. The deal, which was rejected by Time Warner's board of directors in July 2014, would have also involved the sale of CNN to ease antitrust issues.[25] On August 5, 2014, 21st Century Fox announced it had withdrawn its bid for Time Warner.[26] The company's stock had fallen sharply since the bid was announced, prompting directors to announce 21st Century Fox would buy back $6 billion of its shares over the following 12 months.[27]
On July 25, 2014, 21st Century Fox announced the sale of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland to BSkyB for $9 billion, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.[28] Fox would use the money from the sale, along with $25 billion it received from Goldman Sachs, to attempt another bid for Time Warner.[29]
In December 2014, Fox-owned television studio Shine Group merged with Apollo Global Management's Endemol and Core Media Group to form Endemol Shine Group, which was jointly owned by 21st Century Fox and Apollo.[30]
On July 1, 2015, Lachlan Murdoch was elevated to Co-Executive Chairman alongside his father and James Murdoch replaced his father as CEO of the company.[31] Former COO Chase Carey became Executive Vice-chairman.[32]
On September 9, 2015, 21st Century Fox announced a for-profit joint venture with the National Geographic Society, which called National Geographic Partners, which took ownership of all of National Geographic media and consumer businesses, including National Geographic magazine, and the National Geographic-branded television channels that were already run as a joint venture with Fox. 21st Century Fox holds a 73% stake in the company.[33][34]
On December 9, 2016, 21st Century Fox announced it had made an offer to acquire the 61% share of Sky plc that it did not already own.[35][36][37] The company was valued at £18.5 billion. The deal was approved by the European Commission on April 7, 2017,[38] followed by Ireland's Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment on June 27.[39] However, the deal has become subject to scrutiny and an extended regulatory review in the United Kingdom, over concerns surrounding the plurality of British news media that will be owned by the Murdoch family post-merger (counting Sky News, as well as News Corp's newspapers and recent acquisition of radio station operator Wireless Group), and violations of British news broadcasting regulations connected to Sky's former carriage of Fox News Channel in the country.[40][41][42][43] However, a bidding war ensued over the company; in September 2018, Comcast won a regulator-mandated auction with a bid of £17.28 per-share.[44][45][46] On September 26, 2018, 21st Century Fox subsequently announced its intent to sell all of its shares in Sky plc to Comcast for £12 billion.[47][48] On October 4, 2018, 21st Century Fox completed the sale of their stake to Comcast, giving the latter a 76.8% controlling stake.[49]
The Kingdom Holding Company, owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, sold its minority stake in 21st Century Fox during the fiscal quarter ending September 2017. It previously held a 6% stake, which had been reduced to around 5% in 2015. The valuation of the shares, or who they were sold to, is unknown; Al-Waleed was the company's largest single shareholder behind the Murdoch family. The sale was reported after Al-Waleed was arrested in early-November 2017 as part of an anti-corruption probe by the Saudi government.[50]
On December 5, 2017, 21st Century Fox appointed Uday Shankar, chairman and CEO of Star India, as the company's president for Asia. The new role would oversee Fox's television and online video platform business across the region, and the President of Fox Networks Group Asia would report directly to Shankar (instead of the equivalent at FNG U.S.). This did not affect 20th Century Fox's film business in the region, whose heads would continue to report to the Charman and CEO of the film company.[51][52][53][54][55][56][57]
On April 10, 2018, European Commission officials conducted an unannounced search of Fox Networks Group's West London offices, as part of an antitrust inquiry surrounding broadcast rights to sporting events.[58][59]