![]() |
Comcast is using London's Tulchan Communications to handle its $31B bid to acquire British TV broadcaster Sky, a bid 16 percent sweeter than Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox's offer for the 61 percent Sky stake that it doesn't own.
Calling Sky "an outstanding company," Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts said the Philadelphia-based parent of NBCUniversal plans to use it as a "platform for growth in Europe."
The satellite TV company has 23M customers, mainly in the UK, Italy and Germany. "Sky has been a consistent innovator in its use of technology to deliver a fantastic viewing experience and has a proud record of investment in news and programming," said Roberts in a statement. "It has great people and a very strong and capable management team."
Comcast will retain Sky's London headquarters. The deal would boost Comcast's international revenues from nine to 25 percent.
Tulchan's founder Andrew Grant and partners Tom Murray, James Macey-White and Graeme Wilson work Comcast's Sky bid.
Brunswick Group's London office (Jonathan Glass and Andrew Porter) and New York outpost (Justin Dini and Laurie Hays) handle investor outreach for 21st Century Fox.


Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost.
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.



