James Murdoch touches on Fox plans for future of Sky UK
James Murdoch has discussed 21st Century Fox's plans for the future of Sky UK and hinted that the company still wants full control.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter the Fox chief executive said that not having complete control of Sky is “not an end state that is natural for us”.
Fox currently controls 39 per cent of Sky which was consolidated last year after Sky UK paid £6.88bn to buy out its German and Italian operations.
Commenting on the buy outs Murdoch, who took over as chief executive in June, said that the integration was “going really well”. He added that the company was “moving at a very fast pace and has grown in value enormously. We’ve also been clear that over time, having 40% of an unconsolidated asset is not an end state that is natural for us.”
With regards to when a renewed bid might come Murdoch said “right now, we’re 100 per cent focused on supporting the company to get this integration going and get it done for the business to move forward, so there are no plans on the agenda right now”.
It is not clear how Murdoch intends to circumvent the problems which held back Fox’s £8bn-plus bid in 2011 but Sky UK’s takeover of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia two years ago suggest that the takeover is still in the works.