«Breaking News» Comcast outbids Fox in £30billion battle for control of Sky after 24-hour auction

Comcast has won the long-running battle for control of Sky after beating Fox with a £30 billion-plus bid for the broadcaster.

In a dramatic end to one of the City's most complex and convoluted takeover sagas in recent memory, Comcast won out in a day-long auction overseen by Britain's Takeover Panel on Saturday.

Comcast's bid was £17.28 per share, beating Fox's £15.67 per share, after the auction went to the maximum three rounds.

Rupert Murdoch's Fox and Bob Roberts' Comcast entered a three-bid auction for Sky

The wrestling match to take over Sky had gone on for two years and was expected to reach £26billion but Comcast's bid values Sky as worth more than £30billion

Brian Roberts, chairman and chief executive of Comcast, said: 'This is a great day for Comcast.

Comcast boss bid for Sky after chatting to a London cab driver

Comcast chairman and chief executive Brian Roberts said he had closely tracked what Sky had been doing for years, but last November, he had an unexpected reminder of Sky's influence as European's biggest pay-TV provider while in a cab with a colleague.

'I suggested that we jump in a taxi and go to one of the malls and get a demo of Sky in one of their shops. And we had a fabulous experience,' Roberts told reporters.

'The cab driver was incredibly knowledgeable about the difference between Virgin [Media] and Sky in every feature. We were learning a lot there. Then when we to the Sky store, we spent at least an hour going through every feature and comparing it to our own... We were really terribly impressed.'

Liberty Global-owned Virgin Media is a British rival to Sky

Roberts said that while the experience wasn't the deciding factor in moving forward with the bid, it reiterated the media group's value to the chief executive.

'It was another reminder for me how impressive Sky is, and how lucky we would be at Comcast to be able to combine together.' 

'Sky is a wonderful company with a great platform, tremendous brand and accomplished management team.

'This acquisition will allow us to quickly, efficiently and meaningfully increase our customer base and expand internationally.

'We couldn't be more excited by the opportunities in front of us. We now encourage Sky shareholders to accept our offer, which we look forward to completing before the end of October 2018.'

Sky's independent directors are now expected to recommend Comcast's bid to shareholders.

It effectively means Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox has failed for a second time to gain full control of the pay-TV giant.

US firm Comcast had originally tabled a £26 billion, £14.75 a share bid for Sky, while Fox's offer for the 61% of the UK broadcaster it does not already own valued it at £24.5 billion at £14 a share.

But Comcast's final winning bid on Saturday dwarfed Fox's.

Fox and Comcast were only allowed to make fixed-price cash bids in sterling.

Comcast owns NBC Universal and is the largest cable operator in the US.

With the Sky takeover, Comcast will become the biggest pay TV provider in the world, with around 52 million customers after adding Sky's 23 million subscribers.

Winning Sky will also aid Comcast in its fight against the rise of Netflix and Amazon.

Murdoch's sale of his assets marks his exit from a large portion of the entertainment industry

Mr Murdoch's legacy plans could have seen his son James (left) move to Disney and Lachlan to run a smaller Fox and News Corp, but Comcast outbid Fox for control of Sky 

The twists and turns of Rupert Murdoch's two-year pursuit of Sky

The takeover of Sky has become one of the City’s most complicated in recent years.

Here is a timeline of the key events: 

December 2016: Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox made an £11.7bn offer for the 61pc of Sky that it didn’t own

September 2017:  The Government then stepped and the proposed deal referred to the competition regulator following concerns over media plurality because of Murdoch's giant media empire

December 2017: Disney offers to buy the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox, which would include Sky, for £39bn.

February 2018: American cable giant Comcast bid £22.1bn for Sky

June 2018: Rupert Murdoch gets clearance to take over Sky, as does Comcast, new culture secretary Jeremy Wright announces, but only as long as he sells off Sky News to 'appropriate buyer'

Summer 2018: Fox bids £24.5bn for Sky and Comcast pushes its offer to £26bn.

September 20: With no best and final bids, Britain's Takeover Panel say the Sky deal will be settled in an auction between Fox or Comcast

Ben Barringer, equity analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said: 'We can see why Comcast is attracted to Sky. The predominantly US business is in decline - Sky offers it the opportunity to diversify outside of America. The acquisition means that it can expand its customer base in the UK, Italy and Germany.

'Furthermore, Comcast's current viewership is in decline. Consumers are no longer buying whole cable packages but are rather going for "skinny bundles" with SVODs (subscription video on demand) such as Netflix, which offer content at a lower price point; acquiring Sky means that Comcast can also diversify its route to market.'

It is rare for the Panel to run auctions in takeover situations, with Tata's victory in acquiring UK steelmaker Corus in 2008 one of just a few in the past decade.

But it marked a fitting end to a fascinating takeover, which has taken many twists and turns since Fox first made its original £11.7 billion bid in December 2016.

Mr Murdoch has long wanted to seize full control of Sky, having previously made an ill-fated attempt to buy it out in 2011.

Since Fox made its first bid nearly two years ago, it has agreed to sell a major chunk of its business - including its existing 39% Sky stake - to US entertainment behemoth Walt Disney.

Had Fox won the battle to buy Sky before the Disney deal closes, then Disney would have taken ownership of Sky when it closes its own takeover of the Fox assets.

Fox faced heavy scrutiny from the UK Government and competition watchdogs over its Sky takeover plans, while Comcast's bid was cleared by regulators early in the process. 

Shareholders will have to vote on the final bids by October 11. 

Mr Murdoch wanted to hand the reigns to his sons Lachlan and James (left to right) - with James tipped to head to Disney and Lachlan running his father's newspapers and Fox News

How Australian newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch grew his international media empire

1968: Mr Murdoch buys Britain's News Of The World newspaper, building on his family's media empire in Australia.

1969: The media mogul takes control of British tabloid the Sun.

1976: He purchases US tabloid the New York Post. It marks his second foray into the US market, having bought the San Antonio Express-News three years earlier.

1981: Mr Murdoch snaps up the owner of the Times and Sunday Times.

1985: He takes over the film unit of 20th Century Fox and a handful of local TV stations that will later become the Fox network.

1987: He buys US publisher Harper & Row, which is merged with his newly-purchased Williams Collins a few years later, becoming Harper Collins.

1989: Mr Murdoch launches Sky Television. One year later it is merged with TV company British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) to become BSkyB.

1996: He launches the American Fox News Channel, which becomes a major US cable network.

2005: The media mogul makes his first major foray into web-based media, buying social networking site Myspace, which struggles after Facebook gains dominance. It is sold by 2011. He later calls the purchase a 'huge mistake'.

2007: Mr Murdoch acquires financial news organisation the Wall Street Journal.

2011: His media empire is hit with a major scandal after it was revealed that journalists at the News Of The World ordered the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler to be hacked. It later emerged that thousands of others were targeted by phone-hacking. The news led to the closure of the newspaper.

2011: News Corporation makes an offer to acquire BSkyB, but is forced to abandon its plans after becoming embroiled in the phone-hacking scandal.

January 2016: Son James Murdoch becomes chairman of Sky, having last held the role between 2003 and 2007. He had resigned following the phone-hacking scandal involving the Murdoch-owned News Of The World. The return of James Murdoch raises questions as to whether 21st Century Fox would mount a fresh takeover bid for Sky.

December 2016: 21st Century Fox tables a formal £11.7 billion takeover bid for broadcaster Sky, offering to buy the 61% of the business it does not already own.

December 2017: Walt Disney launches a separate 52.4 billion (£39 billion) takeover of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets, which would include its stake in Sky.

January 2018: 21st Century Fox's bid for Sky is provisionally blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority watchdog due to fears that it would hand the Murdochs too much control over UK media. 

February 2018: Comcast makes a £22.1billion offer for Sky to rival the Murdoch bid, throwing his acquisition into doubt.

April 25: Rupert Murdoch's efforts to buy Sky have been derailed after US cable giant Comcast swooped in with a £22bn counter-bid

July:  Comcast withdraws its competing $65 billion bid to acquire 21st Century Fox under the noses of Disney, who upped their offer to $71billion. But Bob Roberts' business does increase its offer for Sky to £26billion

September 12: Rupert Murdoch increases his offer for Sky to £24.5bn. 

September 20: With no final bids in Britain's Takeover Panel say the deal will be settled in an auction between Fox or Comcast

September 22: The auction will close with the result released as soon as possible. Sky shareholders will then have to vote on the final bids by October 11.

Link hienalouca.com

https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/22/comcast-outbids-fox-in-30billion-battle-for-control-of-sky-after-24-hour-auction/
Main photo article Comcast has won the long-running battle for control of Sky after beating Fox with a £30 billion-plus bid for the broadcaster.
In a dramatic end to one of the City’s most complex and convoluted takeover sagas in recent memory, Comcast won out in a day-long auction overseen by ...

It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.

Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/20/12/02EA8215000007D0-6188809-image-a-46_1537441638872.jpg