FILE – In this file photo dated Thursday, June 14, 2018, the 21st Century Fox logo is shown outside its New York office. British regulators say that the corporate battle between 21st Century Fox and Comcast to take over broadcaster Sky will be settled by auction, commencing at 5 p.m. on Sept. 21 and ending on the evening of Sept. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, FILE)Comcast and 21st Century Fox will settle their battle for control of broadcaster Sky through a rare auction designed to put an end to months of offers and counteroffers from the American media empires seeking a foothold in the European pay TV market.
The auction will begin after the London stock market’s close on Friday and end sometime Saturday evening following a maximum of three rounds of bidding, said Britain’s regulator, the Takeover Panel.
Fox has long been trying to acquire the 61 percent of Sky it doesn’t already own. A bidding war emerged last December, when Comcast made an offer for Fox’s entertainment assets, which Disney is in the process of buying for about $71 billion. Comcast eventually dropped out of that contest to focus on its acquisition of Sky.
The regulator said it called the auction “to provide an orderly framework for the resolution of this competitive situation.”
Fox, as the current low bidder, will have the right to make a new offer during the first round of the auction, and Comcast will have the opportunity to counter it during the second round. Both parties will have the chance to make increased offers simultaneously during the third and final round. All bids must be in cash.