Mergers and Acquistions News
Categories: Media & Information Services
March 3rd 2011, 17:09PM
The UK government has approved Rupert Murdoch's proposal to acquire all of satellite broadcaster BSkyB through his News Corporation.
News Corp, which owns the Sun, the News of the World, the Times and the Sunday Times, has offered to sell-off Sky News as a publicly-traded, independent company, as a way to seal the deal.
It has also offered to create a series of independent safeguards – a board with a majority of independent directors and an independent non-executive chairman.
The media giant already owns 39 per cent of BSkyB, but wants to acquire the remaining 61 per cent.
Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, said he proposed accepting News Corp's offer rather than refer it to the Competition Commission.
Talking to the BBC, he said had been reassured that the takeover would not affect media plurality in the UK.
He said the offer meant News Corp have moved "a very long way" from its original offer and, by spinning off Sky News, it would in fact mean it had "less control of news media [in the UK]".
But some opponents of the deal have called it a whitewash.
News Corp said that while it believed that its proposed acquisition of BSkyB shares "will not result in insufficient plurality for any audience in the UK", it had submitted its revised proposal "in order to avoid a lengthy and costly review by the Competition Commission."
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