News Corp. has withdrawn a promise to spin off Sky News, which had been the condition for taking full control of British Sky Broadcasting, and invited the government to refer the bid to competition authorities.
The company’s move on Monday means the government will have to decide whether to refer the bid to Britain’s Competition Commission for a full-scale inquiry into whether the takeover would break anti-monopoly laws.
If it does, the bid would likely be on hold for several months.
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News Corp. acted as the government was facing under intense pressure to block the bid following revelations of phone hacking activity at the Sunday tabloid
“News Corp. continues to believe that, taking into account the only relevant legal test, its proposed acquisition will not lead to there being insufficient plurality in news provision in the UK,” the company said.
Earlier, some analysts in London were pronouncing the takeover bid to be all but dead.
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“It is unlikely that approval could be granted until the criminal investigation into phone-hacking and subsequent related public enquiries have been completed, which could take years,” said Sam Hart, an analyst at Charles Stanley.
A failure to clinch the £7.5 billion-pound ($11.9 billion) takeover would represent a huge setback for Mr. Murdoch, who has built up a global empire over four decades. As well as owning Fox News and the 20th Century Fox film studio, News Corp. owns a raft of newspapers and media outlets all round the world.