UK Unlikely to Block Comcast’s Proposed Sky Takeover, Top Official Says

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Britain’s culture secretary, Matt Hancock, said that he was unlikely to block the American cable giant Comcast’s proposed takeover of the British satellite broadcaster Sky, the latest twist in a merger battle between Comcast and Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. Hancock, said he was not inclined to intervene in Comcast’s $30.7 billion bid for Sky because the “the proposed merger does not raise concerns in relation to public interest considerations which would meet the threshold for intervention.”

Hancock’s remarks came amid a protracted effort by Fox to win full control of Sky, a company in which Murdoch’s company already holds a 39 percent stake. Fox submitted its current bid for Sky in December 2016, but the company has faced a series of regulatory roadblocks since then. Hancock is still considering that bid and is expected to make a final decision about it by sometime in June.


UK Unlikely to Block Comcast’s Proposed Sky Takeover, Top Official Says