Fox Shareholder Files Lawsuit To Block Disney's Proposed Acquisition Of Film And Media Assets
Just as things were looking good for Disney winning the bidding war for the bulk of 21st Century Fox's film & media assets, a shareholder named Robert Weiss has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the deal.
Last we heard, Disney had signed an amended acquisition agreement with 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion in cash and stock, topping Comcast's most recent offer of $65 billion. Then, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that they had approved the merger.
All was looking good, but we did warn you guys that it was far from a done deal!
According to THR, a Fox shareholder named Robert Weiss has now sued in an attempt to stop the acquisition. It seems Weiss believes that several financial projections were not filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, violating security rules.
"The lawsuit alleges that a proxy statement filed on June 28 omits or misrepresents the company's financial projections and the data underlying financial valuation analyses from Goldman Sachs and Centerview Partners. The complaint further contends that Goldman's potential conflicts of interest have not been adequately disclosed."
Doesn't this guy realise that Marvel Studios would get the rights to The X-Men and The Fantastic Four back?
In all seriousness, we're not sure what impact - if any - this will have on the proceedings, but one would assume that any plans that may have been in place to close the deal will be put on hold... at the very least.