As reported in the web version of the Mexican newspaper ‘El Universal’ this last Monday, March 1st, the Spanish company Mediapro would get out of the contest to acquire Fox Sports operations in Mexico, one of the requirements ordered by the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) to approve the Disney-Fox merger, which took place in March 2019.

The news was reported a few days before this Thursday, March 4th, the date on which a new deadline granted by the IFT for the sale of Fox Sports in Mexico will take place. Towards the end of 2020, after the Mexican regulatory entity has announced the new extension for the sale, several specialized websites in the country had identified Mediapro as one of the main candidates to acquire Fox’s sports operations there.

Later, during the first days of February, the Mexican website ‘El Economista added a new candidate for the acquisition. It is the Lauman Group, controller of the Mexican telecommunications company Cotelsat and the newspaper ‘El Financiero’. As reported from ‘El Economista’ at that time,  businessman Manuel Arroyo, the Group’s Leader, went to an  interview with IFT executives. However, so far, no executive has expressed himself in relation to an eventual transaction.

Another requirement to authorize the merger between Disney and Fox was the sale of Fox Sports in Brazil, although, in this case, the merger took place without the need to finalize the sale.