Comcast unveils £22bn formal offer to buy Sky

US media giant Comcast has unveiled a formal £22 billion offer for Sky, setting the stage for a bidding battle with Rupert Murdoch’s 21st First Century Fox and Walt Disney to buy the pay-tv group.

Comcast confirmed its bid at £12.50 a share, as first proposed in its approach two months ago, which marks a 16 per cent increase on the £10.75 a share offered by Fox to buy the 61 per cent of Sky is does not already own.

Sky withdrew its recommendation for the £11.7bn Fox deal following Comcast’s offer, but stressed that both bids are “subject to pre-conditions and neither offer is currently capable of being put to shareholders”.

It added that its independ- 0 Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox is also bidding ent committee will “co-operate fully” with both suitors.

The rival bid comes just ahead of a 1 May deadline for the Competition and Markets Authority to give its final advice on the Fox bid for Sky to Culture Secretary Matt Hancock, who must decide to either approve or block it by the end of May.