The cold war between 21st Century Fox and Comcast over ownership of Sky has finally turned hot, as yesterday evening the US cable operator swooped in with a £26bn bid, hours after the Murdoch camp improved its own offer
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox has kicked off a potential bidding war with US entertainment giant Comcast after making a new offer for the 61pc of Sky it does not already own that values the UK-based broadcaster at £24.5bn
Walt Disney hit back in the bidding war for 21st Century Fox’s prized entertainment and distribution businesses yesterday with a $71.3 billion offer that trumped Comcast’s rival bid.
One day after AT&T got court approval for its big Time Warner acquisition, Comcast formally made a $65 billion bid for 21st Century Fox’s businesses, which had intended to sell various businesses to Walt Disney
Amazon has acquired rights to show English Premier League matches in the UK, signalling a new era in which digital platforms increasingly compete with traditional broadcasters to screen live sport.
The UK Government has today said that it will support Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox bid to buy Sky only on the understanding that Sky News is sold to Disney or another buyer.
Comcast has gatecrashed Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of Sky with a rival £22bn offer, sparking a bidding war for Britain’s biggest pay-TV broadcaster. The media and telecoms company, which owns NBC Universal and is the largest cable operator in the US, has made an all-cash offer of £12.50 a share, a 16% premium on the offer from Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, which values Sky at about £19bn.
Hedge funds now control around £3bn of Sky shares, giving them major influence over the future of the British broadcaster as it is targeted for takeover by two rivals. The Mail can reveal that hedge funds based in Mayfair, New York and Chicago now own 13 per cent of Sky’s stock as it is embroiled in bids from 21st Century Fox and US cable giant Comcast
Nils Pratley of The Guardian writes: The wily media mogul finds himself in a battle to secure a Hollywood ending to his reign. Rupert Murdoch risks being out manoeuvred in a frenzy of media deal-making.
Comcast offered £12.50 for each Sky share in cash, which it said marks a premium of 16 per cent on Fox’s current offer to buy the 61 per cent of Sky it does not already own. Shares in Sky rose more than 18 per cent at the market open to 1,305.5p.
Analysts for Citigroup wrote in a research note they believe there’s a 40% chance Apple will buy Netflix with the money it repatriates following the passage of corporate tax reform.
Apple could potentially repatriate hundreds of billions of dollars, giving it plenty of wiggle room for a major acquisition like Netflix.
Sale of 21st Century Fox assets includes stakes in Sky in the UK and Hollywood film studio as tycoon focuses on Fox News and newspapers
Disney acquires the 39 per cent of Sky currently owned by Fox and “full ownership” of the broadcaster if and when its ongoing takeover bid is completed, according to the terms of the deal
According to the FT: Walt Disney is closing in on the entertainment assets of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox in an all-share deal that stands to reshape Hollywood and the rapidly digitising global media industry. The deal, valuing the Fox assets at about $60bn including debt, could be announced as early as Thursday, according to people briefed on the negotiations.
The Fox boss James Murdoch is reportedly being considered as a potential successor to Bob Iger, chief executive of Walt Disney, if the two companies reach agreement on a possible takeover.
The BBC is manoeuvring towards a £500m bid for full control of UKTV, the broadcaster behind the Dave and Gold channels, in what would be a major expansion into the advertising and pay-TV markets. According to industry and City sources the corporation’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide is in talks with advisers about borrowing hundreds of […]
Cable and media giant Comcast has reportedly approached 21st Century Fox about a possible acquisition, a move that comes after Disney was also reported to be circling Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. 21st Century Fox’s share price shot up in after-hours trading following the news on Thursday, first reported by CNBC. It is unclear whether the cablecompany is exploring a purchase of all or part of Fox, which owns Hollywood studios 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight as well as the Fox news and sports channels.
Reports that 21st Century Fox is willing to sell most of its assets may indicate the media clan are backing away – or is it just a way to achieve their dreams of scale?
The Receivers and Managers (Christopher Hill, Phil Carter and David McEvoy of PPB Advisory) and the Voluntary Administrators (Mark Korda, Jarrod Villani and Jenny Nettleton of KordaMentha Restructuring) of Ten Network Holdings Limited have announced that wholly owned entities of the New York Stock Exchange-listed CBS Corporation have entered into a binding transaction document to acquire the business and assets of Network Ten.
21st Century Fox is in talks with private equity giant Blackstone to buy Tribune Media, one of America’s largest television station operators, sources familiar with the matter have said.
