It’s official, Disney now owns 20th Century Fox. The acquisition, which cost a whopping 71.3 billion. quite possibly makes the House of Mouse one of the biggest media conglomerates in the history of mankind, a massive multinational corporation the likes of which the world has never seen.

The Disney Fox merger was considered a done deal as of 12.02 am Eastern Standard Time on 20 March 2019 (12.02 pm GMT+8 on the same day). Here’s a snippet of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s company-wide memo after the acquisition closed (via CNBC):

“I wish I could tell you that the hardest part is behind us; that closing the deal was the finish line, rather than just the next milestone. What lies ahead is the challenging work of uniting our businesses to create a dynamic, global entertainment company with the content, the platforms, and the reach to deliver industry-defining experiences that will engage consumers around the world for generations to come.”

As corroborated by other sites like Techcrunch, that might spell unfortunate news for existing employees in both Disney and Fox. The Disney Fox merger is expected to result in thousands of layoffs, as both companies officially unite into one entity.

While we debate the pros and cons of the Disney Fox merger, there are several good things coming out of the acquisition. Marvel fans should be delighted that the cinematic rights to properties like the Fantastic Four and X-Men have returned to its original home. Besides that, Disney’s family-friendly brand might start becoming less stringent, as evident from the recent rehiring of James Gunn as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

Disney’s acquisition of Fox also bolsters the value of its upcoming Disney+ streaming service, as it now has a much wider pool of intellectual property to mine from. That’s not even mentioning that Disney now owns streaming site Hulu, which further helps in the company’s pursuit of pushing Netflix off its pedestal of the streaming king.

Realistically, it’s still too early to say anything about the effects of the Disney Fox merger. The coming months ahead will reveal what the immediate aftermath of the massive acquisition will be. Here’s hoping that it will mostly be for the better.

Last but not least, the featured image of this article is actually the current header/banner on the official Walt Disney Company website. As you can see, it now features previous Fox-owned properties like The Shape of Water, Avatar, and The Simpsons. Well, that was definitely fast on Disney’s part.