DISNEY- FOX DEAL APPROVED BY US OFFICIALS
Walt Disney Co has won U.S. antitrust approval to buy most of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s assets for $71.3 billion on the condition that it sell 22 regional sports networks, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. The Fox-Disney deal, agreed in December, still needs numerous other regulatory approvals from other countries.Fox and Disney are preparing to go ahead with their deal, which Fox chose over a competing $65 billion bid from cable operator Comcast Corp earlier this month. Disney said last week in a regulatory filing that it was willing to divest Fox assets that generated up to $1 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to get a regulatory nod for the deal.The media conglomerate had previously planned to divest Fox assets that generated $500 million in EBITDA.