UK: Competition watchdog delays report on Fox-Sky takeover bid

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has delayed issuing its provisional decision on 21st Century Fox’s $15 billion takeover bid for Sky by a month.

Instead of publishing its findings during the week of December 18, as originally scheduled, the watchdog will issue its report in January. A spokesperson for the authority said that the delay was due to the vast number of submissions the body has received about the proposed takeover, even before the deadline for such representations expires on Friday, December 8.

“It is not unusual for us to update our timetables,” the spokesperson said. “In this case, we have received a large body of evidence – including numerous face-to-face hearings and more than 12,000 submissions – so it is vital that we spend the time to reach an informed and considered provisional view.”

The British government referred the bid for further scrutiny by the CMA earlier this year, asking it to judge whether full ownership of Sky by Fox would adversely affect media plurality in the UK The merger would put award-winning news channel Sky News under the umbrella of the Murdoch family, which already owns British newspapers such as The Times of London and the Sun tabloid.

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