US: Comcast to revive bid to buy 21st Century Fox

Comcast Corp. may look to revive its bid to acquire parts of 21st Century Fox despite the cable giant’s bowing out of the process in December just before the Walt Disney Co. unveiled its US$52.4 billion deal for various of the company’s businesses, according to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday, February 11.

Fox accepted the Disney deal, which included the 20th Century Fox movie and TV studio, all the international pay TV properties including its stake in Sky, as well as a number of other assets.

Comcast’s bid was reportedly higher at US$60 billion, but Fox didn’t fully engage in final talks due to worries over anti-trust issues.

“It’s unclear whether such a bid would be welcome or hostile and how the Murdochs feel about it,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Steven Cahall said about a potential new Comcast takeover offer for parts of Fox. “Recall that the Murdoch Family Trust owns about 39 percent of the voting class B shares, so their view is nearly, but not quite, all that matters.”

In December, Comcast had said, “When a set of assets like 21st Century Fox’s becomes available, it’s our responsibility to evaluate if there’s a strategic fit that could benefit our company and our shareholders. That’s what we tried to do and we are no longer engaged in the review of those assets. We never got the level of engagement needed to make a definitive offer. We have a terrific company with a strong portfolio of businesses and will continue to focus on driving growth, innovating, creating great content, and providing excellent experiences for our customers.”

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal

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