S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a wrap-up of European media and communications deal announcements, completions and updates from June 4 to June 8.
TOP NEWS
* The British government conditionally approved 21st Century Fox Inc.'s proposed £11.7 billion takeover of Sky PLC, while it said it will not intervene in Comcast Corp.'s rival bid for the British pay TV giant. The decision means the two media giants could go head to head in a fierce bidding war.
Matt Hancock, U.K. secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, said Fox's proposal to divest news service Sky News (UK) to Walt Disney Co. or to "an alternative suitable buyer" is the most proportionate remedy, even though there are still issues about Sky News' funding in the long term, he added. Hancock has called for immediate discussions with the parties involved, in order to finalize the details within 15 days, "so we can all be confident Sky News can be divested in a way that works for the long term."
* Meanwhile, Hancock also told U.K. parliamentarians that he will not intervene in Comcast's proposed bid for Sky since it "does not meet the threshold for intervention." He said he made the decision after not receiving any comments from interested parties about the deal. The rival bid from Comcast, which was formalized in April, is offering £12.50 per Sky share, representing a 16% premium compared to Fox's December 2016 offer of about £11.7 billion for the nearly 61% stake in Sky that Fox does not already own.
* European Union antitrust regulators are close to approving Comcast's bid for Sky, Reuters reported June 8, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. The European Commission, which is scheduled to give a ruling regarding Comcast's offer by June 15, is not expected to seek any concessions from Comcast, the sources said.
M&A communications
* British telecom giant Vodafone Group PLC plans to invest around €1 billion into its Indian operations, the company said in its most recent annual report. The additional funds should boost the agreed merger between Vodafone India and Idea Cellular Ltd., currently in the final stages of receiving government approval. Post-merger, Vodafone will hold a stake of not more than 47.5% in the joint venture, India's The Economic Times reported.
* The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the impact of Deutsche Telekom AG unit T-Mobile US Inc.'s proposed merger with Sprint Corp. on smaller wireless operators, Reuters reported June 7, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter. The probe is part of the agency's merger approval process.
* Cloud-services platform operator Pareteum Corp. agreed to buy London-based enterprise software-developer Artilium PLC in a cash-and-stock transaction that valued Artilium's equity at about £78.0 million, or $104.7 million, the companies said June 7. The boards of both companies approved the deal, which extends Pareteum's geographic footprint in Europe. Upon the deal's completion, Artilium will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Pareteum, which will continue to operate under the name "Pareteum Corp." with its corporate headquarters located in New York.
* SoftBank Group Corp. unit ARM Holdings PLC is ceding control of its Chinese business Arm Technology (China) Co. Ltd. to a new joint venture with a group of undisclosed direct investors. As part of the deal, the British chipmaker, through ARM Ltd., will sell its 51% stake in Arm China to the investor group for $775.2 million. ARM will thus hold the remaining 49%. The deal, subject to the completion of customary filings and registrations as well as other conditions, is expected to be completed in June. Post deal closing, ARM will continue getting a "significant proportion" of revenues from Arm China's licensing of the former's chip products, SoftBank said. The Shenzhen-registered joint venture will be called Arm mini China, Nikkei Asian Review reported.
S&P Global Market Intelligence provides links to external sites where these offer further relevant information to our readers. While we ensure that such links are functional at the time of publication, we are not responsible in instances where those links are unavailable later.
