LONDON (Alliance News) - Comcast Corp early Thursday welcomed the announcement on Wednesday afternoon by Twenty-First Century Fox Inc that it intends to sell its 39.1% stake in UK pay-TV operator Sky PLC to Comcast, following the US cable company's successful bid for Sky.
US media company Fox will sell the 672.8 million Sky shares it owns to Comcast, which are valued by the winning bid price of 1,728.00 pence at GBP11.62 billion. Fox said it intends to either accept the revised Comcast offer in respect of its Sky stake, or sell the stake to Comcast at the offer price.
Fox said Walt Disney Co has consented to the sale of Fox's Sky stake to Comcast. Fox has agreed to sell a major chunk of its business – which included its existing 39% Sky stake – to Walt Disney.
Earlier on Wednesday, Comcast had increased its stake in Sky to 36.95% by means of market purchases at the agreed takeover price. On Thursday, it said additional market purchases had raised that to 37.72%, but said it now plans to make no further such market purchases of Sky.
Comcast, on Tuesday, said it had purchased 30% of Sky, making its offer for the company mandatory. It said Thursday that any Sky shareholders who had accepted the previous Fox offer for Sky were now free to withdraw those acceptances, though the Fox offer is set to lapse in any case.
Shares in Sky were up 0.1% at the Comcast offer price of 1,728.00 pence early Wednesday.
