Fox agrees to buy the british Sky for 14600 mdd – The Financial

LONDON.- The american company Twenty-First Century Fox, owned by the media mogul Rupert Murdoch, announced on Thursday that it had agreed to purchase the group of cable television Sky for 14 thousand 600 million dollars, according to its offering of 10.75 pounds per share, despite the complaints of some investors.

Fox said that will try to take out a refinancing agreement, which means that you need the support of 75 per cent of the shareholders independent of Sky, who voted in favor of a resolution that values the european platform on 18 thousand 500 million pounds in total.

In an attempt to consolidate his media empire in Europe and the united States, Murdoch is buying the 61 percent of Sky it does not handle yet, in order to achieve the full control of the 22 million customers that has the signature in United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria.

The two firms announced last Friday that they had reached a preliminary agreement. Fox stated that it expected that the acquisition will be complete before the end of 2017.

however, the price of 10.75 pounds per share, which represents a premium of about 40 percent over the price on the day prior to the receipt of the initial proposal, disappointed many of the 50 largest shareholders, who accused Sky of being sold very cheap to its founder and largest shareholder.

“As founding shareholders of Sky, we are proud to have participated in their growth and development,” said Fox in a statement.

“The enhanced capabilities of the combined company will be supported by a revenue base geographically more diverse and stable. This combination creates an agile organization that is prepared to have a greater success in the global market”, he added.

The agreement comes five years after a prior attempt of Murdoch buying Sky that was thwarted by a scandal of wiretapping one of his tabloids. Since then, the tycoon of 85 years has split its business into two parts, leaving the active television on Fox and the news -such as The Sun and Times of London- in News Corp.

Lawyers and analysts believe that the new structure should be sufficient to alleviate concerns about plurality in the media, though critics will argue that, despite the division, Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan continue to control both firms.