Comcast will formalize its $60 billion all-cash offer for select 21st Century Fox assets should a Washington, D.C., federal court side today with AT&T in its bid to buy Time Warner Inc.
According to anonymous sources quoted by CNBC, Comcast is finalizing its offer. A court is set to rule on the Justice Department’s suit against AT&T this afternoon. The sources tell the news outlet that waiting 24 hours will give Comcast some time to look over the judge’s decision and also monitor Disney’s stock price.
Disney hasn’t said if it will improve its bid for Fox if AT&T gets a favorable decision.
Comcast is trying to outbid Disney for assets including cable networks FX, FXX and National Geographic, 21 regional sports networks, Fox’s 30% stake in Hulu and movie and TV production studios. Also up for sale is Fox’s 39% share in U.K. satellite TV company Sky. (Comcast is locked in a bidding war with Fox to buy the other 61% of Sky.)
RELATED: Comcast already harmful enough without Fox, ACA saysd
While all eyes are on the AT&T-Time Warner decision today, the American Cable Association continued to hammer away at Comcast, noting that its 2011 acquisition of NBCUniversal has made it more “harmful” than a combined AT&T and Time Warner.
“The DOJ and the FCC should seriously evaluate measures to limit the harm caused by Comcast-NBCU’s existing market power,” ACA said in an FCC filing today. “At a minimum, the agencies should not allow Comcast/NBCU to further increase its control over programming assets through purchasing the programming assets of Fox.”