Sky - Comcast takeover complete

Yes. It’s 90% acceptances that an offer needs before the remaining shares can be compulsory acquired, isn’t it? It presumably also would prevent Comcast from taking Sky private, which would be a bit of a headache for them.

But remember Disney would likely get its hands on Fox’s 39% stake in that case, and it probably has less interest in hanging on to that stake than Murdoch might.

What will happen to Sky News Arabia and Sky News Australia?

Sky News Australia was a joint venture between Sky, Channel 7 and Channel 9, but News Corp Australia bought the channel outright years ago. Now that Sky is leaving the Murdochs by next month, will the Australian channel be renamed (like The Australian TV)?

Arabia is already operated under a brand licence, that'd transfer to Comcast when they take over. It's likely for Oz to acquire a brand licence, unless Rupe decides to re brand as Fox News Australia.

Sky News Australia could keep its name if they're able to license the Sky News brand.

With its current FoxNews-like format, I cant imagine Comcast/NBC Universal wanting anything to with that or any of its properties to associated with it.. So I'd expect it to probably change names. Probably not anytime soon though.

Comcast are far more interested in the business than in the branding and unless rebranding makes business sense (which in the short term it really doesn't), it's not going to happen. In all likelihood they're custodians of the Sky brand and will keep it separate in order to sell it off (hopefully for a profit) down the track.

Comcast when they buy properties they’re in it for the long run. I don’t think they’d spend this much money if they were going to sell anytime soon.

I forgot about Tata Sky in India, which is a joint venture with Tata Group.
Edit : And Sky in Brazil, Mexico and Central America, which AT&T's DirecTV operates in that area under license. What will happen to them, too?

Fox is selling its Sky stake to Comcast.

#BREAKING 21st Century Fox agrees to sell its 39% stake in Sky to Comcast pic.twitter.com/gq6wtMvuYb

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) September 26, 2018

Looking in detail it seems that 21CF is looking to maximise it's return. I'd expected them, once they took the decision to offload, to transfer their holding en-bloc at the close of deal to Comcast. They apparently are to dispose on the market if Comcast want them.

Incidentally Comcast as at close of business yesterday, owned 36pct of the company, add the 39pct 21CF stake that becomes 75pct. They're accelerating towards the 90pct no return point now.

I’m not privy on how take overs work in general and especially in the UK. Was Comcast bidding on one of the larger shareholder shares or did the board wanted to sell, Comcast and 21CF were the bidders, Comcast came out on top and the board recommended Comcast to existing shareholders as the buyer. Now at the time whose shares were they going to buy - the average and institutional investors, shares Sky plc may have owned, another large shareholder or something else? Who previously owned the 36 they mentioned at the close of business? And then here it was mentioned they were buying shares on the common market. With the buying of 21CF they were at 75%. I was under the impression that when the news broke they already bought or was in the process of buying the majority of shares (50.1% or more). Could someone explain the rest?

So, in the beginning there was Satellite Television. It began broadcasting a single cable channel in 1982. News Corporation bought 65% of the company in 1983 and renamed it Sky, but Murdoch had bigger ambitions. By 1989 News owned 100% of the company which was now broadcasting three channels on Astra.

It was losing money by the bucketload, though, and in 1990 agreed a merger with rival BSB, in which BSB “bought” Sky with its own shares, leaving News with a 50% shareholding in what was now British Sky Broadcasting.

After a significant sports rights acquisition, Sky’s fortunes turned around, and Sky was floated on the London Stock Exchange, further reducing News’ shareholding to around what its successor 21st Century Fox holds now.

But I think it’s fair to say that - up until last Saturday anyway - Murdoch has always had aspirations of taking Sky private again. So back in December it launched a bid to take Sky private. It’s offer was for all of the shares it doesn’t already own. That had been an agreed takeover - recommended by the independent directors of Sky, ie those not appointed by Fox, but that recommendation was withdrawn when Comcast came in with a higher offer.

So began a bidding war.

The “auction” was not ‘ actually an auction for Sky per se. Rather it was a mechanism put in place by the regulatory authorities to end the protracted process of offer and counter offer, and establish one clear offer for shareholders to accept or reject. Comcast’s win couldn’t be held as compelling Fox to sell. Yet in a very real sense it did decide the fate of Sky.