Sky agrees to sweetened £24.5bn takeover offer from Fox

Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox has agreed to new terms to acquire Sky, the pan-European TV group, in a deal worth £24.5 billion that is designed to see off a rival offer from US media giant Comcast. Fox said that it had agreed to pay £14 per share for Sky, a significant premium to the original £10.75 per share deal it made with the London-based company in December 2016. The new offer pushes the competition for Sky, which has 23 million customers across Europe and the lucrative broadcast rights to the English Premier League and other sports competitions in some markets, to new heights. Fox’s Rupert Murdoch, who founded Sky in the early 1990s, has long coveted regaining full control of the business. But Sky is also an important prize for both Walt Disney and Comcast, which are seeking to buy the bulk of Fox.