Murdoch wins big from Sky takeover
Fox sells out of broadcaster after Comcast victory
MEDIA tycoon Rupert Murdoch is in line for a windfall from Comcast’s £30bn takeover of Sky.
The 87-year- old and his family’s 21st Century Fox had fought Comcast for control of the broadcaster but last night gave up in the face of their rival’s overwhelming offer and decided to sell up.
Fox has now agreed to sell its 39pc stake in Sky to Comcast for about £11.6bn. The Murdoch family own about 17pc of Fox, putting them in line for as much as £1.9bn.
However, the picture is complicated by the fact that much of Fox, including the Sky stake, is being sold to Disney, with the Murdochs set to take a stake in Disney.
Last night Disney said it backed the decision to sell Sky, saying it would significantly reduce the cost of buying Fox.
The move ends Murdoch’s association with the broadcaster he founded in 1989, bringing pay-tv to the UK.
The businessman, married to Mick Jagger’s ex-wife, Jerry Hall, admitted at Sky’s launch party: ‘It’s a wing and prayer.’
But it now has 23m subscribers and lucrative rights to the Pre- mier League football. Murdoch had been trying to take full control of Sky since June 2010 when his News Corp outlined a £12bn deal for the business, which was dropped following the phonehacking scandal.
Fox then made a £18.5bn offer for the 61pc of Sky it did not own in 2016, but the deal was held up by regulators, giving room for Comcast to gatecrash the deal with a £22bn bid in February. Both wanted to get their hands on a European footprint to beat off the growing threat from Amazon and Netflix.
Fox and Comcast battled it out, with the Takeover Panel forced to intervene and hold an auction at the weekend after neither side would declare their offer final.
Comcast ended the war late on Saturday evening with a £17.28 offer against Rupert Murdoch’s £15.67. After considering whether to sell its stake over the weekend, Fox said: ‘In light of the premium Comcast has agreed to pay for Sky, we and Disney have decided to sell Fox’s existing 39pc holding in Sky to Comcast.
‘We congratulate Comcast on their pending acquisition. When we launched in 1989 it was four channels produced from a prefab structure in an industrial park on the fringes of west London.
‘We bet, and almost lost, the farm on launching a business that many didn’t think was such a good idea.
‘Today, Sky is Europe’s leading entertainment company and a world- class example of a customer-driven enterprise.
‘This achievement would not have been possible without decades of entrepreneurial risk-taking and the commitment of thousands of colleagues, creators and dreamers.’
Disney’s boss Bob Iger said: ‘The sale of Fox’s Sky holdings will substantially reduce the cost of our overall acquisition and allow us to aggressively invest in building and creating high-quality content.’
Sky shares rose last night by 0.3pc, or 4.5p, to 1730.5p.