The deal could release funds for 21st Century Fox to make a potential renewed offer for Time Warner.Credit Michaela Rehle/Reuters 21st Century Fox's attempts to buy Time Warner Inc. may soon be heating up.
On Friday, the American media giant said it was selling its Italian and German pay-television assets to British Sky Broadcasting Group for more than $9 billion, the latest sign of consolidation in Europe's media industry.
The deal with BSkyB, the British satellite broadcaster that is 39 percent owned by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, comes after Time Warner rejected his $80 billion takeover approach.
The sale of 21st Century Fox's European assets could provide the company with extra firepower to make a potential renewed offer for Time Warner, as analysts expect Mr. Murdoch to make a renewed effort to acquire the American media company.
In the deal announced Friday, 21st Century Fox would retain its minority stake in BSkyB. By doing so, 21st Century Fox remains well-positioned to take advantage of any future deals aimed at consolidating Europe's telecom and media industries. Large players like John C. Malone's cable company Liberty Global are looking to provide pay-TV offerings to their customers across the region.
And the deal would allow BSkyB — one of Europe's largest pay-television providers — to expand its reach within the region. If approved, the deals for the Italian and German assets would allow BSkyB to offer premium sports and movie services to roughly 20 million customers from Ireland to Italy.
"We believe that the three Sky businesses will undoubtedly be stronger together," BSkyB's chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, told investors on Friday. "The enlarged Sky will be good news for customers and investors alike."
The deal must still receive approval from regulators and BSkyB's minority shareholders, and antitrust officials are likely to scrutinize how the takeovers would affect customer choice.
The plan was met with skepticism on Friday as the company's shares fell 2.7 percent in morning trading in London.
Analysts questioned whether BSkyB would be able to achieve the cost savings, estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, from combining the three units, and worried that the company's core British business was showing signs of reduced growth.
Minority shareholders in the European pay-television assets also may cause problems for BSkyB's plans for the newly-acquired units, according to Jerry Dellis, an analyst at Jefferies in London.
Under the terms of the deal, BSkyB said it would acquire 21st Century Fox's 100 percent holding in Sky Italia for £2.5 billion, or about $4.3 billion. The agreement includes £2.1 billion in cash and a further £380 million paid by transferring the British company's 21 percent stake in National Geographic Channel to 21st Century Fox.
BSkyB also would buy 21st Century Fox's 57 percent stake in Sky Deutschland for £2.9 billion. Under Germany's takeover rules, BSkyB would also have to offer to buy the shares of Sky Deutschland's minority shareholders for 6.75 euros, or $9.09, each, a small premium on the company's closing price on Thursday.
Including the purchase of the minority stake's in Sky Deutschland, BSkyB may pay up to $12 billion for the European pay-television assets, according to a company statement.
BSkyB said it planned to fund the deals through a combination of debt, asset sales and a share sale to investors, including 21st Century Fox.
The combination of BSkyB with its German and Italian counterparts comes more than two decades after the British satellite broadcaster began offering pay-television services to local customers.
Over the last 25 years, the company has attracted customers through its lucrative deals with European sports leagues like the English Premiership soccer league, and access to United States content like the successful miniseries Game of Thrones.
Yet as telecom providers like Vodafone of Britain and Deutsche Telekom of Germany have expanded their traditional fixed-line and mobile telephony offerings to offer media services, BSkyB has come under increased competition.
In Britain, for example, the former telecom monopoly BT successfully bid to broadcast some of the games from the English Premiership to compete head-to-head with BSkyB.
And Liberty Global, which already has bought several cable assets across Europe, agreed last week to buy a minority stake in the British television provider ITV from BSkyB for 481 million pounds.
source : http://rss.nytimes.com/c/34625/f/640316/s/3cd9ca58/sc/2/l/0Ldealbook0Bnytimes0N0C20A140C0A70C250Cbskyb0Eto0Ebuy0Eitalian0Eand0Egerman0Eunits0Eof0E21st0Ecentury0Efox0C0Dpartner0Frss0Gemc0Frss/story01.htm
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