Sky and 21st Century Fox have reached agreement on the terms of a proposed takeover of Britain’s biggest pay-TV provider.
Last week the two firms confirmed that 21st Century Fox, which already owns 39% of Sky, was seeking to take full control of the company.
Today both sides say they have reached agreement on a deal which values Sky, which also provides home phone and broadband services, at £18.5bn and will see Fox pay £11.7bn for the shares it doesn’t already own.
In a statement, 21st Century Fox said: “As the founding shareholder of Sky, we are proud to have participated in its growth and development. The strategic rationale for this combination is clear.
“It creates a global leader in content creation and distribution, enhances our sports and entertainment scale, and gives us unique and leading direct-to-consumer capabilities and technologies.”
A previous £8bn takeover attempt of the then BSkyB was eventually dropped by Mr Murdoch’s News Corporation in the wake of the phone hacking scandal which led to the closure of The News of the World.
Since then News Corporation has been split into two separate businesses, 21st Century Fox and News Corporation which retains its predecessors newspaper, magazine and publishing assets.
Sky has also undergone corporate changes by taking control of its Italian and German namesakes to become a multi-national broadcaster able to leverage larger audiences for control of major content. In the UK it’s also expanded into low-cost streaming services and is launching a new mobile phone brand.