“With a final offer that values Sky at about 29.7 billion pounds, or roughly $39 billion, the American cable giant [Comcast] wrested away control of Sky from Rupert Murdoch and the Walt Disney Company, which is buying most of Mr. Murdoch’s company, Fox,” the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The Times continued, “The final battle for control of Sky, a pay-television company whose reach extends across Europe, came down to an unusual one-day, three-round auction overseen by Britain’s Takeover Panel. At the end, Comcast bid £17.28 per Sky share, while Fox had bid £15.67 a share.”

Comcast is buying 61% of Sky. The remaining 39%, currently owned by Fox, is part of the Fox assets being bought by Disney.

Notes the Times, “While Comcast emerged as the definitive winner of the auction, one unresolved question is whether Fox and its soon-to-be owner, Disney, would sell the 39 percent stake it already owns in Sky to its rival. Analysts have speculated that Fox and Disney would be willing to trade that holding in return for Comcast’s roughly 30 percent stake in Hulu, the American streaming service. (Such a deal would give Disney near total control of that business.)

“It is also unclear whether Mr. Roberts’s costly pursuit will sit well with his own shareholders. Comcast’s winning bid is nearly 61 percent above Fox’s initial bid of about $23 billion in late 2016.”

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