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 £24.5bn bid.

The £14-a-share offer from Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox trumps a £22bn approach from US cable giant Comcast.

However, experts reckon Comcast, which owns movie studio Universal Pictures and Shrek-maker 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 has made a separate £49bn bid to buy Fox in its current form.

But to further complicate matters, US film and theme park firm Disney has made a £54bn offer for most of Fox’s assets.

That deal would include most of Sky if Fox’s pursuit of the satellite giant succeeds.

Fox has made promises to protect Sky News in the hope of gaining government approval this week.

Fox, which owns 61% of Sky, said: “As the founding shareholder of Sky we have remained deeply committed to bringing these two organisations together to create a worldclass 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 23 million 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.”