With Disney set to acquire film and TV assets from 21st Century Fox, the largest individual shareholders in the reconfigured version of The Walt Disney Co. would be Rupert Murdoch and his family, Deadline.com reports.
“The 86-year-old media mogul and his family would emerge as the single largest individual shareholders in Disney once the proposed $66 billion deal for 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets closes,” Deadline reports. “Only the mutual fund Vanguard would have more significant holdings in the Burbank media giant.”
The Murdoch family stands to receive almost 88 million Disney shares in the all-stock deal, the story reports, based on the number of Fox shares he and his family trust reported in regulatory filings.
“That’s more than the 64 million shares owned or directly controlled by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs,” Deadline reports. “The late Apple co-founder became Disney’s largest individual shareholder in 2006 with the $7.4 billion sale of Pixar Animation Studios.”
The report notes that the Murdochs may have their sights set on running Disney following the retirement of CEO Bob Iger.
now the truth is known … as long as Rupert is out of the picture altogether, the Murdoch kids should do fine in the Disney universe … if “Daddy the Media Baron” gets in the way, then all bets are off for the future of Disney … (a former Fox producer) –
88 million is only 6% of the shares, but that’s doesn’t make for much of a story.