Auction was held Saturday in London to decide winner of British pay-TV company
The battle between 21st Century Fox and Comcast for British pay-TV company Sky PLC is finally over, with Comcast winning in an auction held by the U. K. Takeover Panel on Saturday, submitting a winning bid of roughly $39 billion.
The fate of Sky was decided during a three-round auction on Saturday, a rarely-used tactic in handling mergers and acquisitions in the U. K. Comcast’s triumph came after the company offered £17.28 (roughly $ 22.59) per share for the company in the final round, handily outbidding Fox’s offer of £15.67 (roughly $20.49).
Also Read: Why Do Comcast and Fox Want to Buy Sky So Much?
More and more, U. S. companies have been looking internationally for a way to further build scale to compete against the rising tide of deep-pocketed tech companies — like Amazon and Netflix — invading their turf. This had made Sky an attractive asset.
Sky’s businesses could grow Comcast’s international revenue from 9 percent of its overall revenue to 25 percent. Sky counts nearly 23 million customers in key parts of Europe, including Germany, Italy and Austria, along with the U. K. and Ireland.
Sky should fit in nicely with Comcast’s other assets, namely NBCUniversal, with its mix of entertainment, sports and news content. In February, Sky extended its rights deal with the English Premier League through 2022, among the world’s most popular (and thus, valuable) sports leagues. That would work well with Comcast, which holds the U. S. TV rights for the British soccer league via NBCUniversal, also through 2022.
Winning on Sky serves as a pretty nice consolation prize for Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, who had attempted to outflank Disney in its pursuit of Fox, before eventually bowing out to focus on acquiring the British pay-TV company.
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The U. K. Takeover Panel, which oversees all mergers and acquisitions, sets a deadline that, if there are still multiple suitors for a company, will trigger an auction to determine the winning bidder.
The Takeover Panel sets this deadline to ensure that the company being acquired isn’t “under siege” for too long, while giving the shareholders for the potential buyers enough time to review all relevant materials from the proposal. Per the U. K.’s Takeover Code, that deadline is 46 days after the most recent offer is formally published with the U. K. Stock Exchange.
The Takeover panel will publish details of each side’s offer after the auction no later than Sept. 24.
Reps for Comcast did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.
