News Corp’s BSkyB bid: Jeremy Hunt expected to give green light next week

Culture secretary set to announce approval for deal after receiving Ofcom’s report • David Cameron pays visit to Murdoch HQ The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is expected to give the final go-ahead to News Corporation’s proposed takeover of BSkyB early next week, after receiving a report on the deal from media regulator Ofcom on Wednesday. Hunt has been waiting to receive final reports on the regulatory issues relating to News Corp’s bid to buy the 60.9% of BSkyB it does not already own from Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading. Hunt is expected to announce the deal will go through next week, although it is understood he is to put the decision out to a further seven-day consultation. He has previously indicated he is minded to approve the merger on condition that News Corporation agrees to spin off Sky News and restrict its shareholding in the channel to 39.1%. Although Ofcom has delivered its report to Hunt, the culture secretary is currently in Brazil with the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, as part of an official UK government visit. Hunt gave the deal a provisional green light in March and had been expected to announce his final decision by the end of April after putting it out to consultation. The delay in publishing a final approval for the takeover is due to make negotiations more intense on points of detail of the Sky News spin-off agreement between News Corp and Ofcom and the OFT, which have both been advising Hunt. Regulatory sources say they want to structure the legal agreement “so it cannot be got around” – an attempt to head off a perception that Rupert Murdoch has been successfully able to work around previous legal agreements he has signed designed to secure the editor’s independence at the point when the Times was acquired in 1981 and when the Wall Street Journal was bought in 2007. In both cases the agreements were designed to prevent the editor of both newspapers from easily being removed, but in practice editors at each title have come and gone largely at the behest of the owner. The long delay has frustrated Murdoch’s News Corp, which is keen to conclude the transaction at a time when BSkyB’s share price has been rising due to its strong financial performance. News Corp’s original proposal was 700p a share a year ago, but Sky’s share price was 830.5p on Wednesday. A final bid is thought likely to succeed at around 875p – costing News Corp about £1.8bn more than the original £7.5bn proposal. A string of media organisations, including the parent company of the Guardian, have opposed the proposed Murdoch merger, arguing it would stifle media plurality by bringing together the largest newspaper group, Sun and Times owner News International with a 37% share of all copies sold in the UK, and the largest broadcaster, BSkyB. Last year the fast-growing Sky had a turnover of £5.9bn, taking it comfortably ahead of the BBC. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . BSkyB Television industry News Corporation Ofcom Rupert Murdoch Jeremy Hunt Dan Sabbagh Jason Deans guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 22, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.