Fox board to meet on Comcast’s $65B bid

Twenty-First Century Fox’s board will meet on Wednesday to decide  whether to consider Comcast's $65 billion cash bid for some of media company’s assets or stick with its roughly $52 billion all-stock offer from Walt Disney.

Disney and Comcast are battling to win Fox's movie and television studios at a time when legacy media and distribution companies are looking to expand to better compete with younger media firms like Netflix that sell their content directly to viewers, according to Reuters.

An important part of the Fox assets getting attention are the company’s international assets such as Star India.

Both Disney and Comcast could use it to expand globally.

While Fox's board has yet to make a decision, analysts and industry dealmakers widely expect Fox to say that Comcast's bid could potentially lead to a better deal for its shareholders.

If it does, Fox would then be allowed to negotiate with Comcast and take a closer look at its offer.

Once Fox engages in talks with Comcast, it will then have to determine if the offer is definitively a superior deal for Fox shareholders, compared with its agreement with Disney.

It could lead to a bidding war as Disney will then have five business days to present a revised offer.

Disney could sweeten its all-stock bid with cash, given its strong balance sheet and the potential boost to earnings per share, according to Reuters.

Fox could also rebuff Comcast's bid.

A U.S. court's recent approval of AT&T's merger with Time Warner raised the likelihood that Comcast's similar proposed deal with Fox would get the green light from regulators, according to analysts.

21st Century Fox is the parent company of FOX Business and FOXBusiness.com.