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LONDON – Comcast emerged as the winner of the British Sky Channel on Saturday, beating 21st Century Fox in a one-month battle that promises to reshape the media landscape.
With a final offer that values Sky at around 29.7 billion pounds, or about $ 39 billion, the US cable giant took control of Sky from Rupert Murdoch and Walt Disney, who buys most of the Mr. Murdoch's company, Fox.
The final battle for control of Sky, a pay-TV company that spans across Europe, resulted in an unusual one-day, three-round auction overseen by the British OPA. In the end, Comcast offered £ 17.28 per Sky share, while Fox offered £ 15.67 per share.
Comcast and its managing director, Brian L. Roberts, made an international incursion into empire building, winning a major European outpost. Sky also represents another source of content that could prove useful when traditional media and telecom companies compete with Netflix. While Comcast already owns NBCUniversal, more original programming and sports programming rights could help retain existing subscribers and attract new ones.
"It's a great day for Comcast," Roberts said in a statement. "This acquisition will enable us to rapidly, efficiently and significantly increase our clientele and expand internationally."
Chairman of the Sky Board, who oversaw the company's takeover bids, Martin Gilbert, said in a statement that Comcast's offer was "a great result" for shareholders and recommended to accept the offer.
While Comcast has become the final winner of the auction, an unresolved question is whether Fox and his future owner, Disney, would sell to his rival the 39% stake she already holds in Sky. Analysts have speculated that Fox and Disney would be willing to trade this stake in exchange for Comcast's approximately 30% stake in Hulu, the US streaming service. (Such an agreement would give Disney almost total control of this business.)
It is also unclear whether the costly pursuit of Mr. Roberts will work well with his own shareholders. Comcast's winning bid is close to 61% higher than Fox's initial offering of approximately $ 23 billion at the end of 2016.
Mr. Murdoch founded Sky in the 1990s and has since become one of the largest European broadband and television companies. The two bidders coveted Sky's international reach – it has around 23 million customers in five European countries – and its mix of original content and high-value sports broadcasting rights, such as English Premier League football.
This presence abroad would give Comcast a way to diversify outside the US market, where the cutting of the cord has slowed the growth of its traditional broadband television and pay-TV businesses.
Sky has also developed a video streaming platform called Q, which Mr. Roberts praised.
A multi-billion dollar takeover battle rarely happened so dramatically, with a government overseen auction over a weekend. But the battle for control of Sky has been dramatic for almost two years.
Fox sought to buy the 61% of Sky that he did not already own by the end of 2016. It was the second time in ten years that the Murdoch family was trying to take full control of Sky. Their first attempt took place in 2011, but they were forced to withdraw phone hacking scandal in Britain involving a tabloid owned by Murdoch.
Fox's bid for Sky in 2016 sparked some skepticism from UK lawmakers and regulators, who feared giving the Murdochs too much control over the UK media market. Murdoch already controls the media like The Sun and The Times of London, and skeptics fear that total control of Sky's news arm will give him too much power.
In the end, Fox was allowed to bid for Sky by the British government.
Last year, Fox agreed to sell most of its capital – including its 39% stake in Sky – to Walt Disney under a $ 52.4 billion deal.
Sky has finally become a key target in a complex bidding war between Fox and Comcast. Comcast made a higher buyout offer for Sky in the spring, in part to spoil Disney's bid to acquire most of Fox. Fox – and behind the scenes, Disney, raised his bid for Sky.
Comcast, however, did not leave Sky. Instead, Fox and she continued to vie for dominance, prompting the OPA Panel to announce the unusual auctions that took place on Saturday.
Follow Michael J. de la Merced on Twitter: @m_delamerced.
Edmund Lee has written reports in New York.
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