The Walt Disney Co. announced on Thursday that it would acquire much of, but not all of, 21st Century Fox Corp. in a long-rumored, $52.4 billion, all-stock deal that will shake Hollywood like an earthquake.
Disney, of course, is the company best known for Mickey Mouse, Pixar, and Marvel characters. Fox is known for the X-Men, Avatar, and The Simpsons, among many others. Pending regulatory approval, it is a marriage of two already large media giants as well as the combining of two of the “big six” storied film studios: Twentieth Century Fox (itself the combined entity of two classic studios) and Walt Disney Pictures.