Rupert Murdoch and his global media empire News Corporation have decided to drop their bid to take overall control of UK satellite broadcasting outfit BSkyB.
It's a humiliating climb down for Murdoch and News Corp has sent shockwaves around the world. They were forced to step down from their latest acquisition after the UK government, the police and at least two of his papers were all embroiled in sordid phone hacking scandal.
The whole scandal broke year's ago when celebrities and politicians were having their phone voicemails hacked by jounalists working for News Of The World, the tipping point was last week when it was revealed the murdered school girl Milly Dowler had her phone hacked and the hacker deleted voicemails leading the family to believe that she could have still been alive.
It has been revealed the company and its minions have been snooping on soldiers, terrorism victims and apparently former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Reports have it that News Corp will have to pay anything up to £40 billion in kill fees just to walk away from the negotiations, and more than £3 billion has been wiped from BSkyB’s value since the Guardian revealed the criminal action of some News Of The World employees
Whether News Corp will try and take full control of the satellite company some time in the future is unclear, but for the time being the deal is off. News Corp said in its statement: “News Corporation today announces that it is withdrawing its proposed undertakings in lieu of reference to the Competition Commission with respect to its proposed acquisition of BSkyB.
Many fear that if News Corp’s proposed bid for BSkyB were successful, it would leave Rupert Murdoch’s conglomerate owning too much of the British media.
The scandal has led to the closure of the News Of The World newspaper and raised questions as to whether News Corp would be a “fit and proper” owner for BSkyB, as required by the media regulator Ofcom.
BSkyB’s share price fell throughout the day, falling to about 670p when News Corp put out its statement, well below the 700p level that News Corp offered for them in June 2010.