Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8471961.stm


Sky have to reduce its stake.

Duke

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Oops sorry.

Duke

---------- Post added at 10:46 ---------- Previous post was at 10:31 ----------

If it took 3 years to get to this stage how long could the PAY TV saga take after the ruling is made?

I wonder if sky will try make a profit when cutting the stake and who will want to invest in ITV


Duke

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Sky have been trying to make a profit by delaying the original instruction to sell for as long as possible. They have been hoping the share price would recover, seeing as they bought at the top of the market and are being ordered to sell at the bottom.

They have failed. Ha ha ha. That'll teach 'em.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

I'm sure they will re-appeal..:rolleyes:

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

How much could they lose then?

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

About £190 million, if they reduce their stake to 7.5 at today's share price. Plus whatever they've spent on their doubtless very pricey legal team, trying to get the order overturned.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

A lot less than if they had gone with the Competitions ruling back on September 29th 2008. This delay in the appeals process has helped to trim back some significant losses given that the ITV Share price is 41% higher today than it was in Sept 2008.

They will have still made a big loss though overall, they paid around £940,000,000 back in November 2006.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Its made my day as well :tu:

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Another Sky cockup while the blue-eyed son was at the helm. I wonder if James will be sitting on the naughty step tonight and Daddy Rupert will be deducing a couple of million bucks from his allowance. :D

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

It will indeed but it just goes to show how much "excess" cash sky have in their buisiness to throw around,i think sky have really pretty much written off most of this "investment" already without any apreciable effect on the company.

Sky seem to have a load of cash to throw at legal eagles also! Makes me wonder what they could afford to drop the subs by and still make bucketloads.

I had to laugh at this lesson for them though,poor little james no wonder he got shifted so quickly.:D

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

I have pressed Virgin Media for a comment over this ruling today and they have stated:

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Oh it's far from a cockup it accomplished exactly what it was intended to, just a case of how much that will cost them.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Which just goes to show that Sky are threatened by what Virgin Media could do to their current premium monopoly.

Nobody believed this was anything more than a blocking tactic, and this latest ruling confirms that. Sky have broken the law, and must now pay for it.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Absolutely right, they're just waiting on how much it'll cost them. I would imagine any company in their position would have done exactly the same thing, it's simply good business.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

The channel 4 link gives further information
I wasn’t aware of RTL’s ownership of channel 5 , so I tried to see if there was some connection between RTL and SKY but there was nothing that jumped out other than RTL showing some SKY channels. However the owner of RTL, Bertelsmann AG itself has got it’s it’s fingers in a few pies not including music or publishing; see http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=bertelsmann

A read of Bertelsmann on wikipedia is interesting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertelsmann shows;

Bertelsmann is not publicly listed, and is majority owned (76.9%) by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a non-profit organisation and political think tank set up by the founding family Mohn.[2] The remaining 23.1% is owned by the Mohn Family. Albert Frère, a Belgian industrialist, owned 25% of Bertelsmann until 2006.

Bertelsmann currently consists of five corporate divisions and a forthcoming music division:[3]
RTL Group, Europe's biggest broadcaster Gruner + Jahr (a magazine publisher, the biggest in Europe)[4]
Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher (popular literature)
Direct Group, the world's largest book and music club group
Arvato AG, an international media and communications service provider

So although there may be reasons to be pleased about today’s announcement over the ITV shares, it seems to me that companies like Rupert Murdoch’s empire which is not shy at influencing public opinion and a political think giant Bertelsmann AG getting together in business, even in a relatively small way, may eventually be a reason for concern for all free thinkers. I don’t trust them.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Hmm, so no chance of Virgin buying the shares then?

I'll get my coat!

Duke

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Bit late for them getting together in business. Give you three guesses who supplies Channel 5's news. Yep, Sky News.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

I seem to recall that at some point Sky offered their 17.5 percent share of ITV to RTL in return for ownership of Channel 5. The deal was stopped.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Sorry, I'll remember that If I post again.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Nothing to be sorry for..

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

After kicking and screaming a bit more, Sky has capitulated. I bet wee Jamsey gets grounded by his dad tonight.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...skyb-itv-stake

:D

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Haha, their probably holding on to the other 10% in the hope that ITV shares go up. Lets hope James holds his breath. ;)

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Not at all, mission accomplished.

---------- Post added at 19:54 ---------- Previous post was at 19:53 ----------

Holding on to shares hoping the value goes up? No you think? Really?

It's amusing how sticking it to 'the man' Murdoch gets people going though.

I'll wait for the usual Murdoch bashers to wade in and get orgasmic over this news :)

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

I'm not convinced doing it at a cost of more than £330 million was in the gameplan.

And it seems Murdoch Jr. has already been sent to bed without any supper, I hadn't realised he's no longer the CEO but has been kicked upstairs as chairman where he can't do any real damage.

Re: Sky ordered to cut stake in ITV
 

Of course the cost was higher than would have been wished for but your other comment is purely your opinion. Nothing to indicate anything 'punitive' about it at all. Given you're so up on things you didn't even know it had happened not entirely sure how seriously to take your thoughts that it was a punitive move.

Still keep gloating. :)