Culture Sec ponders Comcast bid for Sky

Sky's potential takeover by Comcast does not perturb the government, but Culture Secretary Matt Hancock said he had not yet reached a final decision.

Hancock said he is "not minded" to intervene on public interest grounds in relation to Comcast potentially taking over Sky but said he will consider further representations before reaching a final decision.

The Secretary of State is given quasi-judicial powers to make such decisions and is required to do so independently, following a "scrupulously fair and impartial" process, "as quickly as possible", so has allowed until 5pm on Thursday 24 May for interested parties to submit written representations before he comes to a final decision on whether to intervene.

Last month the US cable network operator confirmed a proposed £22bn all-cash acquisition offer for Sky, priced at £12.5 per share in a direct challenge to the £10.75 offer from 21st Century Fox agreed in December 2016 for the 61% of Sky that Fox does not already own. Sky's independent board committee quickly withdrew its recommendation of 21st Century Fox's offer.

Fox's takeover of Sky has been slowed to a crawl by Hancock's predecessor, who referred the issue to regulators, with the Competition & Markets Authority finding the £11.7bn deal was not in the public interest due to the Murdoch family's ownership of the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times under the News Corp umbrella.

The picture was complicated somewhat when Walt Disney Co struck a $52.4bn deal in December to buy most of Fox, with Comcast also last year having proposed a deal to buy Fox assets at 16% more than Disney before being nixed by Fox over antitrust concerns.

Earlier this month, Comcast made legally binding pledges about Sky News as it prepared a separate bid for Fox's entertainment assets as it reportedly prepared an attempt to gatecrash Disney's purchase of assets from 21st Century Fox