Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox said it had secured a deal to buy Britain’s Sky on Wednesday, ratcheting up the stakes of an ongoing bidding war to acquire the European television group.
Sky is seen as one of the media industry’s most coveted prizes for U.S. companies looking to expand their operations to Europe in order to compete with upstarts like Netflix and Amazon. In addition to selling broadband and mobile phone services, Sky is also a leader for pay-TV in Britain, as well as other regional markets including Germany and Italy.
The new Fox bid marks the latest salvo in an 18-month takeover battle for Sky. Disney has agreed a $71 billion takeover of Fox’s entertainment assets, which includes its 39 percent stake in Sky, and will own all of Sky if Fox wins its bid.
Meanwhile, U.S. media giant Comcast is also trying insert itself into both deals and has made an all-cash offer for the Fox assets, as well as a separate offer for Sky.
Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.
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