Rupert Murdoch's Sky Windfall Lessens Sting of Defeat to Comcast

(Bloomberg) -- In Rupert Murdoch’s six decades of media dealmaking, U.K. broadcaster Sky Plc stands out as the one that got away.

The octogenarian may still have the last laugh.

While Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. lost out to Comcast Corp. in a weekend auction of the U.K. pay-TV company he launched almost three decades ago, the global media magnate now gets a double payday.

Murdoch was already in line to receive billions of dollars from Walt Disney Co.’s $71 billion stock and cash offer for most of Fox’s assets, including a 39 percent stake in Sky. Now Comcast’s knockout $39 billion bid has put a rocket under Sky shares, inflating their for Disney and, ultimately, for Murdoch once he becomes a major Disney shareholder.

It looks like the perfect outcome for the 87-year-old, who set up his first news company in Australia in 1952 and sealed the Disney deal in July partly as a way to step back from his businesses and cement his legacy. Murdoch is already the world’s 60th wealthiest person with a fortune d at $17.2 billion.

“Murdoch gets the last laugh from a financial perspective,” said Paul Sweeney, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “He’s sold 21st Century Fox at a really big price and now he’s selling Sky for a really high price.”

Disney shares rose 2.2 percent to $112.77 in New York on Monday.

Because the Sky and Fox deals are still pending, it’s hard to say exactly how much Murdoch will make from the flurry of dealmaking. Fox also hasn’t said yet whether it will tender its 39 percent stake to Comcast.

Sky Jump

Comcast’s Sky bid ended Murdoch’s second effort to take full control of the satellite television company he started in 1989. The first was scuppered by a phone-hacking scandal at his U.K. newspapers and it took him half a decade to try again.

When he did in December 2016, Fox was the only apparent suitor. Then when Comcast entered the fray in February this year, it sent Sky shares soaring. Fox’s Sky stake is now worth more than double what it was before Murdoch’s latest takeover effort.

“Rupert is the big winner in all this,” said Rich Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG LLC. “Sky was near and dear to Rupert, but beyond that, it’s hard to see him as a loser when he created two bidding wars.”

Fox, based in New York, declined to comment.

Click here for a rundown on Murdoch’s career of dealmaking