BENGALURU: Walt Disney Co. on Thursday agreed to buy film, TV and international assets from Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. for $52.4 billion as Disney seeks greater scale to tackle growing competition from Netflix and Amazon.com.
Under the terms of the all-stock deal, Disney acquires significant assets from Fox, including the studios that produce the blockbuster Marvel superhero pictures and the “Avatar” franchise, as well as hit TV shows such as “The Simpsons.”
Fox shareholders will receive 0.2745 Disney shares for each share held. This translates to a value of $29.50 per share for the assets that Disney is buying, Reuters calculations based on Disney’s Wednesday market closing price show.
Immediately prior to the acquisition, Fox will separate the Fox Broadcasting network and stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2 and Big Ten Network into a newly listed company that will be spun off to its shareholders.
The deal ends more than half a century of expansion by Murdoch, 86, who turned a single Australian newspaper he inherited from his father at the age of 21 into one of the world’s most important global news and film conglomerates.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger, 66, will extend his tenure through the end of 2021 to oversee the integration of the Fox businesses. He has already postponed his retirement from Disney three times, saying in March he was committed to leaving the company in July 2019.
Disney will also assume about $13.7 billion of Fox’s net debt in the deal.
Through Fox’s stake in the Hulu video streaming service, Disney will assume majority control of one of Netflix’s main competitors. Hulu is also partially owned by Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc.
Shares in both Disney and Fox were up nearly 1 percent in premarket trading.
Disney to buy Fox film and TV assets for $52bn
Disney to buy Fox film and TV assets for $52bn
Kuwait to boost Islamic finance with sukuk regulation
- The move supports sustainable financing and is part of Kuwait’s efforts to diversify its oil-dependent economy
RIYADH: Kuwait is planning to introduce legislation to regulate the issuance of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, both domestically and internationally, as part of efforts to support more sustainable financing for the oil-rich Gulf nation, Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Al-Sabah highlighted that Kuwait is exploring a variety of debt instruments to diversify its economy. The country has been implementing fiscal reforms aimed at stimulating growth and controlling its budget deficit amid persistently low oil prices. Hydrocarbons continue to dominate Kuwait’s revenue stream, accounting for nearly 90 percent of government income in 2024.
The Gulf Cooperation Council’s debt capital market is projected to exceed $1.25 trillion by 2026, driven by project funding and government initiatives, representing a 13.6 percent expansion, according to Fitch Ratings.
The region is expected to remain one of the largest sources of US dollar-denominated debt and sukuk issuance among emerging markets. Fitch also noted that cross-sector economic diversification, refinancing needs, and deficit funding are key factors behind this growth.
“We are about to approve the first legislation regulating issuance of government sukuk locally and internationally, in accordance with Islamic laws,” Al-Sabah said.
“This enables us to deal with financial challenges flexibly and responsibly, and to plan for medium and long-term finances.”
Kuwait returned to global debt markets last year with strong results, raising $11.25 billion through a three-part bond sale — the country’s first US dollar issuance since 2017 — drawing substantial investor demand. In March, a new public debt law raised the borrowing ceiling to 30 billion dinars ($98 billion) from 10 billion dinars, enabling longer-term borrowing.
The Gulf’s debt capital markets, which totaled $1.1 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2025, have evolved from primarily sovereign funding tools into increasingly sophisticated instruments serving governments, banks, and corporates alike. As diversification efforts accelerate and refinancing cycles intensify, regional issuers have become regular participants in global debt markets, reinforcing the GCC’s role in emerging-market capital flows.
In 2025, GCC countries accounted for 35 percent of all emerging-market US dollar debt issuance, excluding China, with growth in US dollar sukuk issuance notably outpacing conventional bonds. The region’s total outstanding debt capital markets grew more than 14 percent year on year, reaching $1.1 trillion.
