Image source:
What's going on?
21st Century Fox reported quarterly results on Wednesday after its soon-to-be parent company, The Walt Disney Company, reported its own on Tuesday. Fox beat expectations while Disney missed the hoop.
What does this mean?
Fox was sly as ever this quarter it delivered higher profit (nearly double this time last year) and revenue than analysts expected. This was partly down to its entertainment assets a.k.a. its successful movies like Deadpool 2 and its cable network.
Meanwhile, Disney couldnt save Mufasa from falling into the stampede this time and its results missed expectations (tweet this), with both its top (a.k.a revenue) and bottom (a.k.a. profit) lines leaving something to be desired. The companys two recent box office smashes Avengers: Infinity War and Incredibles 2 werent enough to buoy its results, despite Avengers delivering the best music video biggest opening weekend of all time.
Why should I care?
For you, personally: All the better to watch you with.
Disneys been investing in its own online streaming platform thatll be going toe to toe with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Video. Now the inks all but dry on its deal to purchase Fox, Disneyll also get a majority stake in major streaming player Hulu, which should help it compete. Plus, it might pull its shows (like Marvels Jessica Jones) from Netflix, now that its a rival. All of this means youll probably get more quality streaming content remember that stellar shows like Stranger Things and The Handmaids Tale are both originals from Netflix and Hulu, respectively.
The bigger picture: Alls fair, albeit bewildering, in love and war.
Theres still some drama yet to unfold. Comcast was in the running for Fox but it bailed (after a convoluted three-way bidding war). However, Comcast (along with AT&T) owns a 40% chunk of Hulu. Once the Disney-Fox deals complete, Disneyll own 39% of British broadcaster Sky, too the other 61% is currently being courted by (you guessed it) Comcast (as well as Fox, for that matter).
Originally posted as part of the Finimize daily email.
The top 2 financial news stories in 3 minutes. Join over one million Finimizers
