Walt Disney raises offer for Fox assets to $71,3 billion.

(Reuters)- Walt Disney on Wednesday raised its offer to buy Twenty-First Century Fox's assets to $71,3 billion, including a cash component, in an attempt to surpass the $65 billion offered by U.S.-based Comcast last week.

The new cash or stock offer is also an incentive for Fox's largest shareholder, billionaire Rupert Murdoch, who, along with his family, owns 17 percent of the company's voting shares. This is because they stand to face substantial tax burdens that could result from Comcast's all-cash offer. Disney's previous offer was all in stock.

Disney and Comcast are vying for Fox's television and film assets at a time when traditional media companies are facing increased competition from online rivals like Netflix, which sell content directly to consumers.

Disney's offer of $38 per share, split equally between cash and stock, is $10 higher than the offer the company made in December. Comcast's last offer involved $35 per share in cash.

Disney will also assume approximately $13,8 billion in net debt from Fox, bringing the total value of the potential transaction to around $85 billion.

Fox said in a statement that Disney's new offer is "superior" to the one made by Comcast. Comcast did not comment on the matter.

Fox shares were up more than 6 percent at 11:22 a.m. (Brasilia time), at $47,52. The company said it will postpone an extraordinary shareholders' meeting to give investors time to assess Disney's revised offer.