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| Sky: Comcast makes takeover bid to rival Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox | Sky: Comcast makes takeover bid to rival Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| US cable giant Comcast has made a takeover bid for Sky to rival that of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. | |
| The owners of NBC tabled an offer valuing Sky shares at £12.50, giving it a total value of £22.1bn - a 16 per cent increase on the existing offer from Fox. | The owners of NBC tabled an offer valuing Sky shares at £12.50, giving it a total value of £22.1bn - a 16 per cent increase on the existing offer from Fox. |
| Comcast said that a combination would bring "attractive financial benefits" for its shareholders and praised Sky for its scale and market dominance. Sky has around 23 million customers and occupies a leading positions in the UK, Italian and German markets. | |
| "We think that Sky would be very valuable to us as we look to expand our presence internationally,” Comcast chairman and chief executive Brian Roberts said, describing Sky as an “outstanding company”. | |
| "We would like to own the whole of Sky and we will be looking to acquire over 50 per cent of the Sky shares. We are confident that we will be able to receive the necessary regulatory approvals. If successful, the acquisition will enhance our free cashflow per share in the first year.," he added. | |
| Despite uncertainty that Brexit might introduce, Mr Roberts said that he expects the UK to “remain a great place to do business”. | |
| “We already have a strong presence in London and Comcast intends to use Sky as a platform for our growth in Europe,” he said. | |
| Comcast, which also owns Universal Pictures and channels like MSNBC, CNBC and The Weather Channel, is one of the world’s largest broadcasting companies. It is also a major provider of internet services, through its XFINITY brand, and a major phone service provider in the US. | |
| In 2014, it agreed to a $45.2bn takeover of Time Warner Cable, but that deal was eventually abandoned after US regulators raised a host of anti-trust concerns. | |
| Back in December 2016, 21st Century Fox already agreed to buy the 61 per cent of Sky that it does not already own but that takeover has repeatedly been held up by regulatory concerns. | |
| Last month the Competition and Markets Authority said that it had provisionally found that a Sky takeover by 21st Century Fox would not be in the public interest and that a combined entity would have “too much influence over public opinion and the political agenda”. | |
| At the time the CMA said that it would welcome responses to the decision from “interested parties”, before its report is finalised and handed to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Matt Hancock, by 1 May for a final decision on the matter. | |
| Some Sky shareholders have also started to voice concerns that the Murdoch offer might undervalue the company. | |
| Comcast on Tuesday said that if its offer is successful, it would maintain Sky's headquarters in the UK. The deal, it said, would likely increase its international revenues from 9 per cent to around 25 per cent of overall company revenue. | |
| “The acquisition would enhance the entertainment, distribution, and technology leadership of Comcast, and importantly expand Comcast’s international footprint to more effectively compete in the rapidly changing and intensely competitive entertainment and communications landscape,” it said. | |
| “The combined business would create compelling opportunities for growth and innovation.” |