The Walt Disney Company will pay some $3.2 billion to purchase Fox Family Worldwide, which owns the Fox Family Channel and other cable properties in some 50 countries.  Originally begun by televangelist Pat Robertson, the Family Channel was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and TV producer Haim Saban in 1997.  Saban, who is currently the CEO of the Fox Family Channel, started the current process in motion by invoking a clause in his agreement that requires News Corp. (which owns the Fox TV network) to buy him out.  Since Murdoch's News Corp. is in the midst of a bidding war to become the world leader in satellite TV by acquiring Direct TV, News Corp. decided to sell the Fox Family Channel to Disney in order to raise more cash for its acquisition of Direct TV.  The deal will also provide Saban, who has been rumored to have an interest in Marvel Entertainment, with more than enough capital if he decides to acquire Marvel.

 

Disney will acquire a cable channel that is available in more than 80 million homes in the U.S. as well as Fox Kids International, which provides cable programming for kids in 50 countries in Latin America (where it runs a lot of anime programming) and Europe.  In addition Disney will acquire the Saban Entertainment library, which includes more than 6,000 half-hour episodes of series like Spider-Man, Digimon, and the Power Rangers.