21st Century Fox is making the case that a deal with Comcast carries more risk than its deal with Walt Disney.
Despite the fact that the government failed to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger earlier this month, Fox said in an SEC filing Tuesday that a deal with Comcast is rife with antitrust concerns.
This comes after the Fox board agreed on Disney’s higher $71.3 billion offer last week. The raised bid followed Comcast’s unsolicited $65 billion all-cash bid for Fox’s assets. This marked Comcast’s second offer since Fox accepted Disney’s initial $52.4 billion stock bid in December.
“While a potential Disney transaction was likely to receive required regulatory approvals and ultimately be consummated, a strategic transaction with Comcast continued to carry higher regulatory risk leading to the possibility of significant delay in the receipt of merger consideration as well as the risk of an inability to consummate the transactions,” the SEC filing stated, outlining eight concerns.
They include the Justice Department’s “apparent sensitivity to the potential anti-competitive effects of vertical integration” as seen in the court’s opinion of the AT&T/Time Warner deal.
Fox said the opinion did not reject the antitrust claims “as a matter of law” but a lack of “evidence.”
But BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield isn’t buying Fox’s reasoning.
Responding to a conference call led by Disney CEO Bob Iger on Monday, Greenfield said, “regulatory approval should be quick for either buyer — meaning price should be the key deciding factor in who wins #BattleFOX.”
Greenfield cited Disney and Fox’s own antitrust issue when it comes to a concentration of the film studios.
Turning to Comcast concerns, the analyst offered: “Disney is highly likely to be spinning off the regional sports networks, which Comcast would do as well…. The only remaining asset to be acquired of substance is an additional 30 percent stake in Hulu, which does not appear to be a major regulatory swing factor for either buyer.”


