PhotoLONDON — Comcast formally unveiled a $30.7 billion takeover bid for Sky on Wednesday, putting the American cable giant squarely in a takeover battle with Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox for control over the British satellite broadcaster. The terms of the long-awaited proposal were good enough to prompt Sky to withdraw its recommendation for Fox’s $16 billion bid for the 61 percent of Sky that it does not already own. What may follow is a battle for Sky, a broadcaster whose 23 million customers stretch across significant parts of Europe. But perhaps as important, it would complicate Fox’s plan to sell the bulk of its businesses to Disney for $52.4 billion. Comcast had made a bid for Fox that was 16 percent higher than Disney’s on a per-share basis, but that proposal was rebuffed, partly because Comcast refused to offer protections in the event of regulatory rejection.

Source: New York Times April 25, 2018 12:03 UTC