SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the camel's-nose-is-under-the-tent-now dept.
Comcast beats Fox in Sky auction with $39B bid:
After three rounds of secret bidding on Friday and Saturday, Comcast offered the higher price of 17.28 pounds ($22.58) per share for Sky, the equivalent of nearly 30 billion pounds ($39 billion). Rival 21st Century Fox offered 15.67 ($20.47) per share.
In a statement, Sky recommended that shareholders accept Comcast's offer and sell their shares immediately. Comcast said it hoped to complete the takeover by the end of October.
[...] Britain's regulator, the Takeover Panel, set up the auction to reduce uncertainty for Sky after months of offers and counteroffers from the American media giants. Sky is Europe's largest pay-television operator, with 22.5 million customers in seven countries and popular programming including English Premier League soccer and "Game of Thrones."
Fox owns 39 percent of Sky. It now must decide whether to sell its stake or remain a minority shareholder.
[...] A bidding war emerged last December, when Comcast made an offer for Fox's entertainment assets, which Walt Disney Co. is in the process of buying for about $71 billion (54 billion pounds). Comcast eventually dropped out of that contest to focus on its acquisition of Sky.
Its winning bid came at a steep price. Comcast initially made a $31 billion (23.7 billion pound) bid for Sky last February, then raised that bid to $34 billion (26 billion pounds) in July.
[...] The last time such an auction took place was in 2007, when Tata beat out CSN to buy Britain's Corus, creating what at the time was one of the world's top five steelmakers.
How is Comcast going to pay for the acquisition? Even higher monthly rates for cable TV and internet service? SpaceX's Starlink Internet cannot come any too soon.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Monday September 24 2018, @12:58PM (1 child)
Sky TV has been a rip-off for decades. I know people paying literally £100-150 a month, and they still don't get "everything".
Sky broadband has always been rubbish, often near the bottom of the customer satisfaction surveys (often bouyed up only by TalkTalk being so atrocious).
I can't imagine that Comcast getting involved is going to help anybody at all.
Meanwhile, I've just moved to a 4G telephony/data as my main connection, which I can change any time I like and carry around with me in my pocket. Sure, not a solution for a family, but Sky TV + phone + internet can cost you ludicrous amounts.
(Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Monday September 24 2018, @04:28PM
Prepare for those costs to go up as Comcast takes over. In the US, the average Comcast bill is now over $150 per month, plus fees [cordcuttersnews.com]!
I am a crackpot