When companies merge together or get bought out, they have to deal with a lot of redundancy. Each original company had people doing any particular job, and now the new company has two people responsible for the same thing, and probably only needs one. This means that a lot of people usually end up looking for work once a merger is complete, and it appears that one of the people that may be doing just that very soon is the current CEO of 20th Century Fox, Stacey Snider.
While it appears that a number of Fox executives will be hanging around once Disney/Fox deal is done, Alan Horn, the current head of the Walt Disney Company will continue in that role under the newly combined entity, a move that surprises nobody. The heads of the various film divisions, like Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios, and Lucasfilm, will report directly to him.
This means there really isn't a place for Stacey Snider. It's not all that surprising. While the people at the bottom of a merger like this are frequently found to be redundant, it happens at the top just as much. We probably shouldn't be too worried for her future, as Deadline says there may already be a couple of major companies with their eye on her once she's available.
20th Century Fox vice chairman Emma Watts will reportedly be the one running that division of the new company, and likely reporting directly to Alan Horn along with the other division heads. While Fox will lose its Marvel properties to Kevin Feige's Marvel Studios, there's still plenty more material under the 20th Century Fox banner, Avatar etc, for Watts to handle. She will likely also be a major player in Disney's dealings with Hulu as streaming becomes a major focus in the new company. The heads of Fox 2000 and Fox Searchlight are also expected to remain in their current positions.
An official announcement on this new structure is expected as early as later this week, though it's unlikely we'll see any major structural changes take place until the merger is completed, which is expected to be sometime early next year. There's a lot of work to do to get the various parts of the massive machine working together smoothly before letting people go.
The Disney/Fox merger is one of the largest of its kind and it will have a fundamental impact on the entertainment industry as a whole. While Fox and its various divisions will continue to exist, the fact that they won't be independent of the rest of Disney means there's basically one fewer major movie studios in the world. This will change the way films are released, as Fox will probably produce fewer major feature films in order to be sure they don't compete directly with all the other properties being produced by Disney.
There's a lot we still don't know about what the new Walt Disney Company will look like when it's all said and done. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend as more information as this major industry shift comes into focus.,
