Comcast offers to buy Sky in US$30b challenge to Fox

[LONDON] Comcast Corp has jumped into the fray for Sky, challenging Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and Walt Disney Co for the European broadcaster.

The cash offer of £12.50 per Sky share from Comcast exceeds the £10.75 offered by Fox by about 16 per cent, giving Sky an equity value of about £22.1 billion (S$40.7 billion), Comcast said Tuesday in a statement.

The bid comes about two months after Disney's US$52.4 billion agreement to buy most of Fox's film and TV assets, including its stake in Sky. Fox is trying to win UK regulatory and shareholder approval to acquire the 61 per cent of Sky that it doesn't already own and then would sell the entire business to Disney.

BLOOMBERG