21st Century Fox, the international film and television giant, has agreed to buy British broadcaster Sky, the owner of Sky News, for GBP11.7 billion ($14.6 billion).

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox already owns just over 39 per cent of Sky. The formal offer values the FTSE 100 company at GBP18.5 billion.

The deal is expected to be completed before the end of 2017, according to a report on Sky News website.

The cash offer values Sky shares at GBP10.75 each and, in addition, Sky shareholders will receive any dividends paid by the company, it said.

Commenting on the acquisition, 21st Century Fox said: “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. It adds the strength of the Sky brand to our portfolio, including the Fox, National Geographic and Star brands.”

“Sky is a creative, commercial, and consumer powerhouse delivering its own content to customers across all platforms. Sky is the #1 PayTV brand in all its key markets, with an exciting growth runway in each.

“The enhanced capabilities of the combined company will be underpinned by a more geographically diverse and stable revenue base.  It will also create an improved balance between subscription, affiliate fee, advertising and content revenues. This combination creates an agile organization that is equipped to better succeed in a global market,” it added.

21st Century Fox is the world's premier portfolio of cable, broadcast, film, pay TV and satellite assets spanning six continents across the globe. Reaching more than 1.8 billion subscribers in approximately 50 local languages every day, 21st Century Fox is home to a global portfolio of cable and broadcasting networks and properties.

Sky is Europe’s leading entertainment company. As at 30 June 2016, Sky served approximately 22 million customers across five countries: Italy, Germany, Austria, the UK and Ireland.

Sky has annual revenues of approximately £12 billion and is Europe’s leading investor in television content with a combined programming budget of over £5 billion. Sky employs more than 30,000 people as at 30 June 2016 and supports an estimated 130,000 jobs across Europe. – TradeArabia News Service