Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
COMCAST HAS OUTBID Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox in an auction to buy Sky plc, the British takeover regulator has confirmed.
The US company has agreed to buy the company for £30.45 billion (about €33.8 billion) in what would be the biggest takeover ever seen in the European media industry, if accepted by shareholders.
Comcast’s bid works out at £17.28 (about €19.23) per Sky ordinary share. Fox’s highest offer was worth £27.6 billion, Britain’s Takeover Panel said in a statement.
The future of Sky’s ownership has been uncertain for nearly two years.
As reported by Sky News, Sky agreed to be taken over by Fox, its biggest shareholder, in December 2016. Since then, Fox had agreed to sell most of its entertainment assets to Disney, including its Hollywood film studio and its 39.1% stake in Sky.
However, the bid was held up by a lengthy series of investigations by the Competition & Markets Authority and Ofcom, the broadcasting and telecoms regulator.
The Takeover Panel does not declare an auction winner but simply states the size of the offers made.
It set 11 October as the deadline “on which either offeror’s offer can become or can be declared unconditional” by shareholders.
Contains reporting from © AFP 2018
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The price of Sky subscription should be intresting over the next 6 months or so. The only way is up!
@RobbieL: I’ll be cancelling there’s f all on it anyway
@Mr Mystery: I was about to cancel SKY last year when they decided to drop the Discovery channel’s from their package, Then they said that they had made a deal to retain same channel’s, but as far as I can see, most of the programs are repeats of old programs that are at least two or three years old. Con me once shame on you, con me twice, shove your subscription.
@Patabake Kennedy: they completely messed up the channels, for as long as I can remember discovery and associated channels were located around 520 now their mixed up everywhere for some silly reason
@RobbieL: rule number 1 with sky or virgin… haggle over best price… plenty of times got 50, 40 & 30% off the yearly package… havent paid full price in years…
@Mr Mystery: I had them all memorised for years but that old memory is not capable of starting all over again.
@RobbieL: I pay €105/month for full-package Sky, including useless 3-D stuff that I no longer watch. I’m finding I watch more Free-to-air TV shows than Sky, which I rely on only for football and movies. I used to enjoy the Documentaries on Sky until they dropped subtitles on most of them… (hard of hearing problem).
Am planning to scrap Sky TV altogether, save my €105.month for some better use.
@Canny Jem: Thinking the same way, sure the missus can always watch the soaps on something else, a bit of exorcise for a couple of hours in the evening wouldn’t do meself any harm.
@Canny Jem: €105 pm??
@RobbieL: is this not just Sly News?
hopefully their range of programs will improve, such a dreadful selection at the moment.
@RJ.Fallon: try ray Donovan, or subscribe to the porn channels. Don’t waste your time with the cinema channels!
@Me_a_monkey: im 73 and I dont want to watch Ray Donovan in a porn movie
@RJ.Fallon: lol!!
Wont bother me either way I’ll stick with Freeview usually something half decent on.
Good luck with that. Sub tv is a dying to near dead medium
@Eugene Walsh: ha!
@Eugene Walsh: hmm i think you maybe reading too much about cord cutters in US and assuming that the Uk ( Sky main market ) will inevitably follow their trend but its a very different market , and if you look at the stats for sub reveneus from 20012 until 2018 it has actually only been increasing and is in the billions – the Sky model for sports and football has not shown declines with the advent of streaming services and actually netflix etc have announced that they have reached agreement to be integrated on the sky platform as the user interface and subscription levels are so good , i would also think that when you are doing multi billion dollar media acquisitions you would have done plenty of research and projection and not spotten subscription TV trends before commiting 30 billion dollars of investment .
@Eugene Walsh: nonsense lad.. Worked in that industry for yrs. They’ve difersifed massively in revenue streams and their tech is light years ahead of competitors. They ain’t dead.
How long before there’s only 1 media company? I give it ten years
@Bernie Roche: That 1 media company might be RTÉ, with the rising costs of our TV Licence and RTÉ’s constantly rising advertising revenue. Horrors!!!
Fox news,anyone?phew…
Comcast are a disaster of a company, voted most hated company in the states many times and awful customer service.
Also an advocate for dismantling net neutrality.
Luckily we’ve competition with Virgin and alternatives like saorview/FTA here.
@Shane:
Net neutrality is bad, it basically means government control of the internet.
https://youtu.be/aiZ8xwwycXA
@Otranto: That video is scaremongering propaganda pushing tiered pricing. Net neutrality is a no-brainer for the consumer.
So Comcast could’ve bid £3billion less and still won? burned!
Only muppets watch british sky broadcasting in Ireland.
Especially the fools watching sky news which is just british news
@dublincomments: since everyone watches premiership, that’s the money maker for Sky. Sky news ratings are low only a few thousand watch it.
When you think Sky can’t go any lower wait till Comcast takes over…they are by far the worst carrier in the US and don’t give a damn about their customers.
I for one welcome my new American overlords
Good.
have your say