Mexico. The Federal Institute of Telecommunications, IFT, approved granting The Walt Disney Company and Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. a 3-month suspension of the disincorporation period to sell the Fox Sports business in Mexico.
The order to disincorporate Fox Sports in Mexico is one of the conditions imposed on March 11, 2019 by the IFT Plenary, to authorize Disney to acquire assets of 21CF. In this sense, the period granted for this process expired on May 1, 2020.
However, taking into consideration the situation generated as a result of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the Parties requested the Institute to suspend the disincorporation period. In response, the IFT Plenary determined to grant a suspension that includes from March 19 to June 19, 2020, so that the disincorporation period would restart on June 20, 2020 and would end on August 3 of the same year.
The suspension granted by the Plenary does not exempt the Parties from compliance with the other conditions established in the Resolution authorizing the concentration between Disney and Fox, including the obligations relating to maintaining Fox Sports in Mexico as an independent, viable and competitive business in the relevant market.
Based on the information provided by the Parties and the Independent Auditor, the IFT determined that the suspension is conducive since there is a notorious impossibility for Disney and Fox, at this time, to continue in their entirety with the disincorporation process, without this being the result of a fact or act attributable to them, as it derives from the situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition, in the event that, after the expiration of the period of 3 months of suspension, the fact or cause for which the Plenary authorized the suspension persists, the Parties may request the Institute to extend it.
As has happened since the authorization of the concentration between Disney and Fox, the IFT will continue to supervise and verify compliance with the conditions imposed to preserve free competition.
