M&A Deal Summary

Walt Disney Acquires Fox Family Worldwide

On October 24, 2001, Walt Disney acquired media company Fox Family Worldwide from Saban Capital Group for 5.3B USD

Acquisition Highlights
  • This is Walt Disney’s 2nd transaction in the Media sector.
  • This is Walt Disney’s 4th largest (disclosed) transaction.
  • This is Walt Disney’s 3rd transaction in the United States.
  • This is Walt Disney’s 3rd transaction in California.

M&A Deal Summary

Date 2001-10-24
Target Fox Family Worldwide
Sector Media
Buyer(s) Walt Disney
Sellers(s) Saban Capital Group
Deal Type Add-on Acquisition
Deal Value 5.3B USD

Target

Fox Family Worldwide

Los Angeles, California, United States
Fox Family Worldwide, Inc. is an entertainment company that develops, acquires, produces, broadcasts, and distributes television programming and motion pictures.

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Buyer(S) 1

Buyer

Walt Disney

Burbank, California, United States

Category Company
Founded 1923
Sector Media
Employees173,250
Revenue 88.9B USD (2023)
DESCRIPTION
Entrance to The Walt Disney Company's headquarters in Burbank, California.
Entrance to The Walt Disney Company's headquarters in Burbank, California.

Walt Disney is a diversified worldwide entertainment company. Walt Disney operates in five business segments. These include Media Networks, Parks and Resorts, Studio Entertainment, Consumer Products and Interactive. The Media Networks segment includes international and domestic cable television networks, a domestic broadcast television network, television production operations, domestic and international television distribution, domestic television stations, domestic broadcast radio networks and stations, and publishing and digital operations. Walt Disney was founded in 1923 and is based in Burbank, California.


DEAL STATS #
Overall 3 of 21
Sector (Media) 2 of 6
Type (Add-on Acquisition) 3 of 20
State (California) 3 of 10
Country (United States) 3 of 16
Year (2001) 1 of 2
Size (of disclosed) 4 of 12
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
1999-08-25 Fairchild Media

United States

Fairchild Media consists of a variety of fashion and other magazine titles. Titles include Jane, upscale fashion magazine W and 11 trade publications including Women's Wear Daily and Supermarket News.

Sell $650M
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2001-11-06 The Baby Einstein Company

Alpharetta, Georgia, United States

The Baby Einstein Company develops and sells products that expose babies to various forms of human expression–language, poetry, music, art and science, through ways that are nurturing and fun.

Buy -

Seller(S) 1

SELLER

Saban Capital Group

Los Angeles, California, United States

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor


Category Private Equity Firm
Founded 2001
Size Large
Type Sector Focused
DESCRIPTION

Saban Capital Group (SCG) is a private investment firm specializing in the media, entertainment and communications industries. SCG makes both controlling and minority investments in public and private companies. In addition to its private equity activity, the Firm makes early-stage investments in digital media, mobile and consumer internet endeavors, through Saban Ventures, formed in 2008. SCG was established in 2001 by Haim Saban and is based in Los Angeles.


DEAL STATS #
Overall 1 of 8
Sector (Media) 1 of 5
Type (Add-on Acquisition) 1 of 3
State (California) 1 of 2
Country (United States) 1 of 3
Year (2001) 1 of 1
Size (of disclosed) 1 of 2
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2003-08-11 ProSiebenSat.1 Media

Unterfohring, Germany

ProSiebenSat.1 Media is a media company that operates 27 TV channels in 10 countries. The Entertainment segment operates free TV stations, such as SAT.1, ProSieben, kabel eins, sixx, SAT.1 Gold, ProSieben MAXX, and kabel eins Doku, as well as distributes ProSiebenSat.1 HD stations. ProSiebenSat.1 Media was founded in 1984 and is based in Unterfohring, Germany.

Buy -