October 24, 2001 – Disney Acquires Fox Family Worldwide
“These assets are a perfect fit for our company. We paid approximately for a rare asset.” – Disney CEO Michael Eisner
On October 24, 2001, Disney completed the acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide, which they bought for $5.3 billion from News Corp. and Haim Saban. The announcement of the planned acquisition was presented by media outlets on July 23, 2001. The acquisition included several channels, such as Fox Family Channel and Fox Kids (rebranded as ABC Family and Jetix, respectfully). Upon the announcement of the acquisition, Disney began to shift content from ABC and other Disney broadcast channels to ABC Family, giving the channel enough programming to start off well.
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