Disney And Fox's Shareholders Just Approved Them Becoming One Big Giant Thing

Say goodbye to one of the biggest companies in the world, and hello to an even bigger one. Shareholders officially approved Disney buying Fox this morning -- and creating a new Fox spinoff company.

Each company had separate meetings this morning, since they're still separate companies for the moment at least. Those meetings both ended in shareholders approving the merger/acquisition, accordin to a press release.

All those Fox shareholders now get shiny new Disney stock in return for their Fox stock, once the current Fox goes to that great big studio lot in the sky.

The companies both had similar remarks in their statements:

Fox head honcho Rupert Murdoch: "Combining the 21CF businesses with Disney and establishing new 'Fox' will unlock significant value for our shareholders."

Disney head honcho Bob Iger: "We're incredibly pleased that shareholders of both companies have granted approval for us to move forward, and are confident in our ability to create significant long-term value through this acquisition of Fox's premier assets."

Translation: All those shareholders are about to make a toooon of money. Fox's shareholders get the option of either getting a payout of $38 in cash, or shares of the brand new version of Disney. Fox shareholders as a whole are ultimately getting about half cash and half stock.

The deal includes Fox's film and TV productionBloomberg ran down a list of all of the franchises you know and love that Disney gets in this deal:

On a similar note, CNN reporter Frank Pallotta put out this list of what Disney's forthcoming streaming service could now include:

How much is all of this costing Disney? They're expecting to pay about $35.7 billion in cash, as well as issuing 343 million shares from the new version of Disney to Fox's existing shareholders, in a deal worth $71 billion. That means those Fox shareholders will own between 17 and 20 percent of the new Disney.

Iger said that they "look forward to welcoming 21st Century Fox's stellar talent to Disney and ultimately integrating our businesses to provide consumers around the world with more appealing content and entertainment options."

Underneath that statement, saying that the "stellar talent" will be welcomed, comes the fact that a lot of that Fox talent won't be coming over -- layoffs are likely on the way. Numerous jobs are expected to be lost thanks to duplication of positions in both companies. You're going to need bigger departments to handle a larger company -- but you probably won't need departments twice as large as the ones that exist at Disney now.

The vote comes one month after the U.S. Department of Justice approved the merger. Part of the merger being approved includes a requirement from the Department of Justice that they sell off the Fox Sports Regional Networks. It's a deal that almost didn't happen, thanks to a rival offer from Comcast, but they dropped out -- so Disney's getting what it wants.

Fox's Murdoch is holding onto pieces of Fox, including the actual Fox TV network, Fox News, the national Fox Sports channels, Fox Business Network, and local TV stations. But it's a massive change.

"I want to thank all of our executives and colleagues for their enormous contributions in building 21st Century Fox over the past decades. With their help, we expect the enlarged Disney and new 'Fox' companies will be pre-eminent in the entertainment and media industries," Murdoch said.

That's likely true -- the new Disney will be the biggest entertainment company in the world.

Also, as has been pointed out numerous times since the merger was first announced -- The Simpsons called it:

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