Disney to buy 21st Century Fox

The Walt Disney Company announced Thursday a deal to acquire many parts of Twenty-First Century Fox for 52.4 billion U.S. dollars in stock. Disney CEO Bob Iger will remain in his role as company CEO until 2021.

After the Fox takeover is complete, Disney will have unprecedented dominion over the movies and TV you love to watch today, from "This is Us" to "The Simpsons." Pixar will share a neighborhood with the Simpsons. The classic Star Wars films can sit on the same shelf as the new ones now, and Disney has assembled every Marvel character except Spider-man.

"We're honored and grateful that Rupert Murdoch has entrusted us with the future of businesses he spent a lifetime building, and we’re excited about this extraordinary opportunity to significantly increase our portfolio of well-loved franchises and branded content to greatly enhance our growing direct-to-consumer offerings," Iger said in a statement. "The deal will also substantially expand our international reach, allowing us to offer world-class storytelling and innovative distribution platforms to more consumers in key markets around the world," Iger added.

The film studio was founded in 1935 as 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation; the company spun up a TV division called TCF Television Productions in 1949. Over the decades, Fox has produced dozens of box office hits and long-running TV shows — and now, Disney will own them all, adding to its acquisitions of Marvel Entertainment in 2009 and Lucasfilm in 2012.

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