Comcast wins auction for Sky with £30.6bn bid

Comcast has triumphed over 21st Century Fox and Walt Disney in the auction for Sky with a £30.6bn bid in a deal that will redraw the global media landscape. Comcast’s £17.28 a share bid beat a rival £15.67 a share bid from Fox, which was backed by Disney, and came in the third and final round of an auction when each bidder was asked to make their best offer for the broadcaster. The Comcast offer values Sky at almost £4bn more than the Disney-Fox bid

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Comcast launches 22bn rival bid for sky

Comcast has gatecrashed Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of Sky with a rival £22bn offer, sparking a bidding war for Britain’s biggest pay-TV broadcaster. The media and telecoms company, which owns NBC Universal and is the largest cable operator in the US, has made an all-cash offer of £12.50 a share, a 16% premium on the offer from Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, which values Sky at about £19bn.

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Hedge funds build 13% stake in Sky

Hedge funds now control around £3bn of Sky shares, giving them major influence over the future of the British broadcaster as it is targeted for takeover by two rivals. The Mail can reveal that hedge funds based in Mayfair, New York and Chicago now own 13 per cent of Sky’s stock as it is embroiled in bids from 21st Century Fox and US cable giant Comcast

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Comcast bids US$30.9bn for Sky

Comcast offered £12.50 for each Sky share in cash, which it said marks a premium of 16 per cent on Fox’s current offer to buy the 61 per cent of Sky it does not already own. Shares in Sky rose more than 18 per cent at the market open to 1,305.5p.

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Sky strikes £600m broadcasting deal with English Football League

Sky has struck a new £600m broadcasting deal with the English Football League, with the agreement also allowing clubs to livestream matches directly to fans from their own websites. Under the five-year deal that begins in 2019, Sky will screen up to 150 matches each season from the EFL‘s professional divisions below the Premier League. Games from the Sky Bet play-offs, Carabao Cup and Checkatrade trophy are also included. The EFL said the deal represented a year-on-year increase of 36 per cent on its current broadcasting deal with Sky.

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Sky buys stake in reborn Chrysalis television production company

Sky has taken a substantial stake in the reborn Chrysalis television production company that will fund the creation of a slate of new dramas. Chrysalis Vision was set up by the former management team behind Chrysalis Television, one of the original “super indies” in the production sector that developed long-running shows including Midsomer Murders and Doc Martin. The original business was sold in 2003 as the former Chrysalis media empire was dismantled and became All3Media, which was acquired by Liberty Global and Discovery in 2014 for £500m

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