Murdoch bids for BSkyB
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation approached BSkyB with a bid to take full control of the satellite broadcaster that valued the company at roughly £12bn, but was rebuffed, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday.
BSkyB, which has News Corporation as its largest shareholder and Rupert Murdoch’s son James as its chairman, rejected the bid as too low, the source said.
BSkyB was looking into its options, the source said, declining to be named because the talks are private.
News Corporation, home to Fox broadcasting and cable networks, the Twentieth Century Fox movie studios and newspapers including The Wall Street Journal and The Sun, currently owns 39 per cent of BSkyB.
The news of the bid comes after reports of talks in March this year that Murdoch could take Britain’s dominant Pay-TV group private.