Fox’s cunning move for Sky
New bid part of megabucks industry battle
A £150BILLION takeover war involving some of the world’s biggest media giants hotted up yesterday.
Billionaire mogul Rupert Murdoch upped the stakes in his fight for full control of Sky with a new £24.5billion bid.
The £14-a-share offer from Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox trumps a £22billion approach from US cable giants Comcast.
However, experts reckon Comcast, who own movie studio Universal Pictures and Shrekmakers DreamWorks Animation, will come back with a higher bid.
Russ Mould, investment director at City firm AJ Bell, said: “The takeover saga is far from over.”
The skirmish for Sky is only part of a wider takeover tussle triggered by the rapid growth of Netflix and Amazon in the entertainment industry. Comcast have made a separate £49billion bid to buy Fox in their current form.
But to further complicate matters, US film and theme park firm Disney have made a £54billion offer for most of Fox’s assets.
That deal would include most of Sky if Fox’s pursuit of the satellite giant succeeds.
Fox have made promises to protect Sky News in the hope of gaining government approval this week. Fox, who own 61 per cent of Sky, said: “As the founding shareholders of Sky, we have remained deeply committed to bringing these two organisations together to create a world-class business positioned to deliver the very best entertainment experiences well into the future.”
Martin Gilbert, Sky’s deputy chairman, said the offer “reflects the strong position the business is in”.
Experts claimed the megabucks battle is unlikely to lead to Sky’s 23million customers across Europe being hit with price hikes.
Julian Aquilina from Enders Analysis said: “The companies have reassured people that they are not coming in to make dramatic changes. Sky is a well-oiled machine and we would expect whoever buys it to keep it going the way it is.”