News Corp abandons BSkyB bid

Rupert Murdoch has bowed to intense political pressure and withdrawn News Corp’s planned £7.8bn bid to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting, after the company admitted public condemnation of phone hacking at his UK newspapers made the deal “too difficult”.

The decision to abandon the 13-month pursuit of the UK’s most valuable commercial broadcaster, announced on Wednesday, means the phone-hacking scandal has forced Mr Murdoch not only to close his most widely read British newspaper, the News of the World, but also to curtail his ambitions to consolidate his pay-television empire in Europe. Downing Street welcomed the news, saying: “As the prime minister has said, the business should focus on clearing up the mess and getting its own house in order.”