When Disney (NYSE: DIS) first proposed spending more than $52 billion in December 2017 to acquire most of the assets of Twenty-First Century Fox (NASDAQ: FOX) (NASDAQ: FOXA), the ambitious bet to expand its reach sent shock waves through the entertainment industry.
But when all was said and done six months later, and after a brief bidding war that saw Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) raise the stakes with its own $65 billion cash offer, Disney managed to win Fox's affections with a jaw-dropping $71.3 billion cash-and-stock deal -- or an enterprise value of more than $85 billion if you included Fox's debt to be assumed by Disney.
At the time, Disney justified the hefty premium by noting the "intrinsic value of [Fox's assets had] increased" since it made its first offer, crediting both operational improvements and tax reform for the change. And Fox, for its part, chose the House of Mouse as its preferred suitor thanks to a combination of its enormous bid, superior strategic fit, the "attractiveness" of the equity portion of Disney's offer, and -- more pertinent to this article -- what it viewed as a lower risk that the purchase might fail in the face of regulatory scrutiny.