Comcast challenges Murdoch with $31 billion offer to buy Sky

Comcast Corp, the biggest cable operator in the United States, offered to pay £22.2 billion to buy Sky, the European pay-TV group that Rupert Murdoch's Fox has already agreed to buy. Comcast, which owns NBC and Universal Pictures, said it was offering £12.50 per share, significantly higher than the £10.75 per share agreed by Fox. The proposed offer pits Comcast against Murdoch, the 86-year-old media tycoon who helped to launch Sky in Britain, and also against Walt Disney which has agreed to buy a string of assets from Fox once the deal is done, including Sky. Comcast said it had not yet engaged with Sky over the proposal. "We would like to own the whole of Sky and we will be looking to acquire over 50 per cent of the Sky shares," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement. "Sky and Comcast are a perfect fit: we are both leaders in creating and distributing content," Roberts said on a conference call. "Innovation is at the heart of what we do: by combining the two companies we create significant opportunities for growth." Sky's chairman is Murdoch's son James, who is the chief executive of 21st Century Fox, so Comcast will have to gain the support of the independent...