After Fox, Comcast increases its offer to buy Sky

New York – New twist in the battle to seize the British television company Sky: The US cable operator Comcast on Wednesday made an offer made the same day by the Fox group of the Murdoch family.
  

Comcast has increased to 26 billion pounds (29.4 billion euros) against 22 billion pounds previously (25 billion euros at the time), according to a statement.

This bidding comes on the day of the new offer of the Fox group, who wants to buy the 61% stake in Sky that he does not have yet, valuing the group at 24.5 billion pounds (27.7 billion euros).

According to Comcast, its new bid was accepted by Sky's "independent 19459007" composed of leaders of the British non-Murdoch galaxy group, already present at the Sky management it controls 39% of the shares.

This same committee had earlier accepted Fox's offer.

" Comcast has long admired Sky and believes that it is a remarkable company that would marry very well with Comcast ," said the group in a statement.

Wednesday's bidding illustrates " the commitment to hold Sky ," he adds.

Contrary to Fox's offer, Comcast's offer has already been approved by the British authorities.

On June 15, the European Commission had unconditionally cleared Comcast's acquisition of the British television group a year after authorizing a competing bid issued by 21st Century Fox.

In addition to Sky News, Sky is very active in the sport and has just managed to keep hold of most of the broadcast rights of the " Premier League " English Football League in the UK . The group has also entered into a partnership with the Swedish music streaming platform Spotify. Sky also broadcasts fiction, holding for example the broadcast rights of the hit series Game of Thrones.

Fox's offer was subject to the approval of the British authorities, who have been studying the case for many months.

London is worried about the plurality of media in the United Kingdom, where Murdoch already controls two large daily newspapers, the Sun and the Times.

In a statement released Wednesday on the London Stock Exchange, US media giant 21st Century Fox, already the largest shareholder of Sky, had detailed his new proposal: it goes from 10.75 pounds per share Sky to 14 pounds, so to buy the 61% of the capital he does not have yet.

– A complex case –

The British Competition Authority (CMA) had ruled that Fox's proposed takeover could be " contrary to the public interest ".

But since then, 21st Century Fox has proposed some remedies, among which the British Minister of Culture and Media has retained the sale of Sky News to the American giant of entertainment Disney or " any other acceptable buyer ", with the commitment of appropriate funding for this channel in the medium term.

In his statement on Wednesday, Fox said the ministry should make its final decision on this matter by Thursday.

Even before Comcast outbid, George Salmon, an badyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, had noted that Fox's offer was " a little lower than some expected " and that there was " all the odds that Comcast will counterattack again ".

The acquisition of Sky is also complicated by the fact that in the United States, the battle rages between Disney and Comcast to buy a large part of the Fox group.

At the end of June, Disney got the green light from the US competition authorities for the purchase of most of Fox on the condition of selling sports channels.

This opens the way to the creation of a juggernaut: Disney owns in Hollywood the Star Wars saga or the Marvel superheroes, the chains of the ABC group and especially the ESPN sports. He wants to get his hands on 20th Century Fox film studios, National Geographic television, Fox's participation in the Hulu streaming service and, in the UK, in Sky.

Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the news agency DowJones, other properties of the Murdoch family, are not part of it, and would constitute the bulk of a new group. " Fox " thinned.

Disney put $ 71.3 billion on the table in this operation but Comcast, which has already filed a first offer on Fox, could outbid the US press.

Comcast has NBC, USA Network, CNBC, Universal Studios and DreamWorks, not to mention its internet operator activities.