UK Unlikely to Block Comcast’s Proposed Sky Takeover, Top Official Says

Britain’s culture secretary, Matt Hancock, said that he was unlikely to block the American cable giant Comcast’s proposed takeover of the British satellite broadcaster Sky, the latest twist in a merger battle between Comcast and Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. Hancock, said he was not inclined to intervene in Comcast’s $30.7 billion bid for Sky because the “the proposed merger does not raise concerns in relation to public interest considerations which would meet the threshold for intervention.”

Hancock’s remarks came amid a protracted effort by Fox to win full control of Sky, a company in which Murdoch’s company already holds a 39 percent stake. Fox submitted its current bid for Sky in December 2016, but the company has faced a series of regulatory roadblocks since then. Hancock is still considering that bid and is expected to make a final decision about it by sometime in June.