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Game On: Comcast Tops Fox’s Bid for European Pay-TV Giant Sky By 16 Percent

Feb 27, 2018  •  Post A Comment

“U.S. cable giant and NBCUniversal owner Comcast has made an unsolicited $31 billion (£22 billion) takeover bid for European pay TV giant Sky, offering more than Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox,” reports The Hollywood Reporter.

THR adds, “NBCUniversal’s parent company offers a 16 percent premium, with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts not seeing ‘any material’ regulatory issues like the ones that have delayed the Fox deal review.”

Writes the Los Angeles Times, “Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, is largely based in the U.S. but it wants to expand its international portfolio. The London-based Sky satellite television service boasts more than 22 million customers in Britain, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy.

“The Philadelphia cable giant on Tuesday offered Sky stockholders $17.44 a share for their stakes in the satellite TV service.”

The Times adds, “Comcast is going on the offensive. It has been stinging ever since it tried, and failed, to buy the Fox assets last fall. Instead, Murdoch accepted Disney’s bid — even though Comcast had offered more money than Disney. Murdoch said he felt Disney’s bid was superior, in part, because Fox shareholders, including the mogul and his family, would become stakeholders in Disney — the most valuable and prestigious entertainment company around.

“As part of its deal to buy much of Fox, Disney would take over Fox’s stake in Sky — giving Disney prominent television channels and a distribution platform in Europe.”

To read more about this item, please click here to read the article in The Hollywood Reporter, by Abid Rahman and Georg Szalai. To read the Los Angeles Times piece, by Meg James, please click here.

 

 

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