21st Century Fox has held talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co, CNBC reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
A potential deal would constitute a major combination of media giants in an industry that has been upended by Amazon, Netflix and other digital media players.
The two sides are not currently in talks, but have held discussions in the last few weeks, CNBC reported. Officials at Disney and Fox declined to comment.
Disney, which under U.S. rules could not own two broadcast networks, would not purchase all of Fox, CNBC reported, citing the same sources. Any deal also would likely exclude Fox's news and sports programming assets for fear of running foul of antitrust laws, CNBC reported.
In addition to Fox's movie studio, TV production and international assets such as Star and Sky, Disney would likely buy entertainment network FX and National Geographic, the report
added.
Here are each company's major assets, ranked by last 12 months revenues, according to S&P Capital IQ.
