It appears that we must all prepare to bow down to the mighty force known as Mickey Mouse.
That’s right, earlier today, another major hurdle was cleared, as the shareholders of both 20th Century Fox and Disney convened in separate conference rooms and voted to approve the proposed merger between the entertainment behemoths. And it took all of about 10 minutes.
With Comcast firmly out of the picture, Disney and Fox have decided to combine their forces and truly dominate the film, television, and streaming industries. While this is great news for those hoping to see Wolverine join the Avengers, for entertainment analysts, the future is now completely uncertain. But, don’t go running to your bomb shelters just yet. While the shareholders have approved the deal, basically legally confirming their intentions to merge, there’s still some more obstacles in the way of this being completely over.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Disney is still waiting on a bunch of international approvals before they can put a bow on the deal. The report says that the Mouse House is waiting on over a dozen international territories, including the European Union and China, to approve the merger. Much like how our government gave the OK earlier, Disney still needs the go-ahead from the other territories.
So, how long is this all going to take? Well, sadly for those hoping for immediate effects to be felt, it looks like we still have almost a year to go. According to Fox general counsel, Gerson Zweifach, the deal isn’t expected to fully close until the “first half of 2019” (via Variety). Until then, we’ll just have to wait to see how Hollywood and the worldwide entertainment industry is affected by this unprecedented merger.
Yes, it looks like this is all but a done deal, but the true celebration won’t be until 2019.