£5bn deal sees BSkyB create ‘Sky Europe’

BSkyB is to pay £4.9 billion to take over Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia, creating a European media powerhouse

The move will see BSkyB enter into agreements to acquire 21st Century Fox’s 100% stake in Sky Italia and its 57.4% interest in Sky Deutschland. The enlarged company will serve 20 million customers, half of which are based in the UK.

It is expected that 21st Century Fox will use the deal to fulfil its ambitions to buy US based Time Warner, which earlier this month rejected Fox’s bid of $80 billion.

The deal was announced along with BSkyB’s annual results, which show pre-tax profits fell to £1.2 billion from last year’s £1.26 billion.

BSkyB also reported that revenues rose by 7%.