It’s now done. Two years after The Walt Disney Company made the initial $52 billion bid to acquire the 21st Century Fox entertainment assets, and working through months of the legalities, the studio has finally completed the Disney-Fox merger. More on the report below.

The announcement was made over 21st Century Fox’s website, which says:

Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. (“21CF”) (NASDAQ: TFCFA, TFCF) announced that it has today completed the distribution of all issued and outstanding shares of Fox Corporation (“FOX”) common stock to 21CF stockholders (other than holders of the shares held by subsidiaries of 21CF) on a pro rata basis (the “Distribution”). 21CF and FOX are now each a standalone, publicly traded company. FOX Class A common stock and FOX Class B common stock are now listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbols “FOXA” and “FOX,” respectively. 21CF Class A common stock and 21CF Class B common stock, which were formerly listed on Nasdaq under the symbols “FOXA” and “FOX,” respectively, are now listed on Nasdaq under the symbols “TFCFA” and “TFCF,” respectively.

As previously reported, Disney was finally able to acquire Fox after Comcast had made a better offer. This forced the Mouse House to up their offer from its initial $52 billion offer to $71.3 billion. Soon after, the merger was approved by the Justice Department.

Of course, now that the acquisition is completed, Disney has the rights to Fox’s Marvel properties like X-Men and Fantastic Four. How soon we could see them integrated into the MCU remains to be seen. There’s still the matter of Dark Phoenix and a possible Deadpool 3. Additionally, Noah Hawley’s Doctor Doom film is in limbo. And while we will finally get to see the X-Men and Fantastic Four underneath the Marvel umbrella, the merger does come with a huge downside.

The issue at hand is what will happen to the 4,000-plus employees that are working at Fox. Mergers like these usually come at a high price, with many expected to lose their jobs. We will just have to see what the repercussions are after all of this.

[Source: 21 Century Fox]