The end of the long battle between Comcast and Fox for control of Sky will be a competitive auction, which will begin on Friday, September 21, 2018 and will end on Saturday, September 22, 2018.
The two historic contenders, 21st Century Fox and Comcast, will submit new final bids and it will be up to Sky shareholders to decide the fate of the company. This is the unexpected decision of the ‘Takeover Panel‘, the British body that regulates mergers and acquisitions, which, to put an end to a duel that has lasted almost two years, has decided to resort to an unusual mechanism for the takeover of large listed companies.
The procedure provides for a maximum of three rounds and offers exclusively in cash. Fox, which has so far proposed the lowest figure, will be the first to make a new offer, followed by Comcast. A second and third round of bids will follow, after which the highest bid will be declared the winner on Saturday evening. The winner’s confirmation will arrive by Monday morning, before the opening of the markets.
The challenge started in December 2016 when Fox launched its offer to consolidate Sky’s ownership, but the deal had been blocked by the British regulators. For its part, Comcast, which was previously in contention for the acquisition of all of Fox’s assets, announced at the end of July that it would not continue its offer of assets owned by Rupert Murdoch, to focus solely on Sky’s satellite group.
