Is Comcast 'Doubling Down on the Past' With Sky Bid?
*By Carlo Versano*
Comcast's $38.8 billion winning bid for British satellite broadcaster Sky was a "shocking price" to pay for international expansion, said BTIG media and tech analyst Rich Greenfield.
Investors seemed to agree ー Comcast ($CMCSA) shares were down as much as 8 percent in morning trading on Monday.
Over the weekend, Comcast beat out 21st Century Fox ($FOXA) in a unique blind auction in front of British regulators. Comcast's bid of about $22.60 a share was significantly higher than Fox's. Competition between the companies [raged](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/business/media/comcast-fox-disney-bidding-war.html) all summer long as the two industry veterans struggle to remain relevant in a new-media, streaming universe.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the deal that would allow Comcast, the largest cable provider in the U.S., to "quickly, efficiently, and meaningfully increase our customer base and expand internationally.” Sky has 23 million subscribers in Europe for its core satellite business and a growing broadband network of content, including exclusive rights to Premier League soccer.
Price aside, Greenfield said Monday in an interview on Cheddar that Comcast is "doing what they know best" and "staying in their lane." Rather than responding to the cord-cutting and the ever-present threat of Netflix by getting into streaming itself, the company is looking to international expansion for growth.
Additionally, the acquisition keeps Disney ($DIS) from gaining full control of Sky via its acquisition of Fox's entertainment assets ー the company beat out Comcast in its battle for Fox over the summer. Disney will now hold 39 percent of Sky, and investors are looking to see whether Disney unloads the stake or remains as a minority owner. One theory gaining traction is that Comcast could swap its 30 percent stake in Hulu for Disney's stake in Sky.
Comcast shareholders still need to approve the Sky deal and decide, effectively, if a bigger footprint in a rapidly changing media environment is worth the huge cost.
"This seems to be doubling down on the past," Greenfield said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/siriusxm-acquiring-pandora-for-3-5-billion).
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
It’s an annual tradition: the Fed’s banking ‘stress test.’ A year after the regional banking crisis, there are good reasons to make sure they’re prepped.
Summer is upon us, which means weddings, trips overseas, and trips to see Taylor Swift. Avoid a “Cruel Summer” with these budget-friendly tips and tricks.
While Nvidia's meteoric rise led it to briefly dethrone Microsoft as the world's biggest public company, there's a lot more going on in this market than A.I.
