US telco conglomerate Comcast has decided it can’t be bothered with 21st Century Fox but is still really keen on Sky.

Scott Bicheno

July 20, 2018

1 Min Read
Outfoxed Comcast looks to the Sky

US telco conglomerate Comcast has decided it can’t be bothered with 21st Century Fox but is still really keen on Sky.

Apparently determined to complicate things for media rival Disney at every possible opportunity, Comcast seems to have decided that forcing Disney to come up with an extra $19 billion to get hold  of Fox is enough for now. The real fun will now consist of making sure Disney doesn’t get hold of Sky when the Fox deal goes through.

Disney bid $52.4 billion for Fox at the end of last year, but Comcast decided to throw a spanner in the works by offering $55 billion for it in June. This forced Disney to come back with a $71.3 billion offer soon after, which turned out to be enough to make Comcast throw in its cards. “Comcast does not intend to pursue further the acquisition of the Twenty-First Century Fox assets and, instead, will focus on our recommended offer for Sky,” said the Comcast announcement.

This seemed to be the likely outcome when Comcast quickly escalated the bidding war for Sky last week. An intriguing aspect of this bid is that, if it succeeds, Comcast and Disney will have to coexist in the running of Sky, since Fox already owns 40% of it. It’s hard to see how they could sustain that bizarre symbiosis, so something will have to give. On the other hand Disney could just decide to hold on for a bit just to annoy Comcast.

Digital TV Europe did a good analysis of the various plot twists back when the Comcast bid for Fox was just a rumour, which you can read here.

About the Author(s)

Scott Bicheno

As the Editorial Director of Telecoms.com, Scott oversees all editorial activity on the site and also manages the Telecoms.com Intelligence arm, which focuses on analysis and bespoke content.
Scott has been covering the mobile phone and broader technology industries for over ten years. Prior to Telecoms.com Scott was the primary smartphone specialist at industry analyst Strategy Analytics’. Before that Scott was a technology journalist, covering the PC and telecoms sectors from a business perspective.
Follow him @scottbicheno

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