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A conference room with a large screen displaying business acquisition statistics and charts, surrounded by papers and folders.

A conference room with a large screen displaying business acquisition statistics and charts, surrounded by papers and folders.

On December 14, 2017, the Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire most assets from 21st Century Fox, including Fox Searchlight, for $52.4 billion.[19] After a bid from Comcast (parent company of NBCUniversal) for $65 billion, Disney counterbid with $71.3 billion.[20] On July 19, 2018, Comcast dropped out of the bid for 21st Century Fox in favor of Sky plc and Sky UK. Eight days later, Disney and 21CF shareholders approved the merger between the two companies.[21] On March 12, 2019, Disney announced it has set to close the Fox deal on March 20.[22][23] On March 19, 2019, 21st Century Fox spun off the remaining assets – the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations, the Fox News Group (which includes the Fox News Channel), and the domestic operations of Fox Sports – to the new Fox Corporation in preparation for the completion of the sale, which occurred the following day.[24][25][26] The following day it was announced that Fox Searchlight Pictures would be situated under The Walt Disney Studios banner and several high profile layoffs occurred.[27] As of November 2019, FX Networks and Fox Searchlight were assigned to supply Hulu with content.[28] On January 17, 2020, it was announced that the "Fox" name would be dropped from several of the Fox assets that were acquired by Disney, shortening the company's name to "Searchlight Pictures", in order to avoid brand confusion with Fox Corporation.[29][7] The then co-chairs Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula stayed on through the Voir plus