Comcast $60bn to outbid Disney for Fox?
May 8, 2018
By Colin Mann
Reports suggest that US media giant Comcast is planning an all-cash bid of $60 billion (€50bn) for most of 21st Century Fox’s assets, dependent on whether the US administration approves AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner. Any such deal would also see Comcast acquire 100 per cent of Sky.
Comcast made a $31 billion bid for Sky on April 25th seeking to outbid Fox’s agreed bid. Sky said that as a result of the announcement of the higher cash offer, the Independent Committee of Directors was withdrawing its recommendation of the offer announced by 21st Century Fox on December 15th 2016 and was terminating the Co-operation Agreement entered into with 21CF on the same date.
The Fox bid would top Disney’s offer of $52 billion, with sources suggesting that if Disney gets into a bidding war with Comcast, then Comcast’s bid for all of Sky and Fox could get close to $100 billion. Should the government prohibit the AT&T-Time Warner deal, Comcast would not bid.
Comcast is asking investment banks to increase the bridge financing facility they have already arranged for the Sky offer by as much as $60 billion to finance the Fox bid, Reuters has reported.