Comcast Just Topped Disney’s Bid for 21st Century Fox

Hot on the heels of the judge’s decision to allow AT&T to merge with Time Warner, Comcast has entered a rival bid to purchase FOX. Disney had previously aimed to pick up 21st Century FOX’s studio/television holdings for a reported $52.4 billion, and Comcast has apparently vowed to top that.

Deadline and Variety (which has probably the most comprehensive write-up of the current situation of the proposed purchases) are both reporting the same thing: that the internet provider/cable giant has said they intend to top the existing offer from Disney with a possible $65 billion counter-offer.

“We have long admired what the Murdoch family has built at Twenty-First Century Fox,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts wrote in a letter to Fox’s controlling Murdoch family. “After our meetings last year, we came away convinced that the 21CF businesses to be sold are highly complementary to ours, and that our company would be the right strategic home for them.”

We will let you know as further information about this deal becomes available, like just how far above Disney’s offer Comcast is willing to go (almost double, wow) and if/when FOX makes a decision about who will be the purchaser of their assets.