The Walt Disney Co. is in negotiations to buy Fox Family Worldwide, Inc., a set of children’s cable channels, for $3.3 billion from Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. Ltd. and Saban Entertainment, sources told Reuters on Saturday.
According to Reuters, News Corp. and Saban, which each own 49.5 percent of Fox Family, are putting a price tag of $6 billion on the unit. In addition to the Fox Family channel, which has 81 million subscribers, the unit also includes a library of assets such as The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Disney would also assume $2 billion in debt as a result of the deal.
In December, Haim Saban, chairman and chief executive of Fox Family, told News Corp they had the choice of buying Saban‘s stake in cash, bringing in a partner to buy Saban‘s stake, or selling the entire operation.
Disney is expected to make an announcement early next week. But Disney is not the only company interested in purchasing Fox Family. AOL Time Warner, Inc., which owns a number of cable properties including HBO, CNN, TBS and TNT, and Viacom Inc., which owns Nickelodeon and MTV, have also shown interest, the source added.
