21st Century Fox to swallow Sky
December 9, 2016
The board of British broadcaster Sky on Friday accepted a takeover bid worth 18.5 billion pounds ($23.4 billion, 21.8 billion euros) from media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's US-based 21st Century Fox.
Directors of Sky and 21st Century Fox had agreed to an offer price of 10.75 pounds per share and Sky's board would recommend acceptance to the firm's shareholders, Sky said in an announcement to the London Stock Exchange.
"After a period of negotiation, the independent directors of Sky and 21st Century Fox have reached a preliminary agreement," Sky said while emphasizing that some terms of the offer remained under discussion.
Deal not in the bag yet
It cautioned there could be no certainty that a final offer would be made by 21st Century Fox, which already owns nearly 40 percent of Sky.
Sky's shares soared by 30 percent on the London Stock Exchange following the announcement on Friday.
Murdoch had previously tried to take full control of Sky, but was sidelined in 2011 amid a phone-hacking scandal at his British newspapers that rocked the political and media establishment in the UK.
hg/jd (dpa, AP)