Mar 16, 2017

Fox’s £11.7bn bid for Sky referred to UK watchdog

UK culture secretary Karen Bradley has referred 21st Century Fox's £11.7bn bid for full control of Sky to the media watchdog Ofcom, triggering a process that will bring fresh scrutiny to Rupert Murdoch's global media empire. In a statement to parliament on Thursday morning, Ms Bradley said the regulator would consider whether a Fox takeover of the European broadcaster would damage media plurality in Britain by handing too much political influence to Mr Murdoch's newspapers and TV channels. Fox's £10.75 a share offer for the 61 per cent of Sky it does not already own is the latest attempt by Mr Murdoch to gain control of the broadcaster as media groups race to consolidate in the face of growing competition from online platforms such as Netflix and Amazon. The 2010/11 bid by Mr Murdoch's News Corp was pulled following the backlash over the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World newspaper. Opponents of Mr Murdoch and his family argue that little has changed since that bid, and pressed Ms Bradley to carry out a thorough review of corporate governance before giving the takeover the green light.

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