Fox Shareholder Files Lawsuit to Stop Disney Acquisition

Sky's independent committee said Wednesday Fox's new bid "represents a substantial increase in value relative to the Comcast offer", and it will "unanimously recommend" the offer to Sky shareholders, according to the Financial Times.

It advised the government in May that the deal should be allowed to go ahead but only if it sold Sky News to avoid concerns over plurality of media ownership in the UK.

Fox raised its bid for the roughly 61% of Sky it doesn't already own by more than 30%, to £14 a share, in a deal that values all of Sky at £24.5 billion ($32.5 billion).

Of course, there's still time for Comcast to make yet another counteroffer, forcing Disney to increase its bid once more.

Disney's proposed deal to acquire the 21st Century Fox assets has hit a substantial speed bump this week, as one of the Fox shareholders has filed a lawsuit in regards to the merger. Sky shares fell as much as 2% in early trading, as some investors had expected a higher counter from Fox (fox). Sky has 23 million customers in five European countries and also boasts a market-leading platform, its Q box, and a suite of premium TV content to lure and retain subscribers, including rights to Premier League soccer. Its board had previously approved Fox's takeover of the company, but withdrew that blessing after Comcast unveiled its counteroffer in April.

Chaplin and other analysts on Wall Street are hoping that Fox, Comcast, and Disney can find a way to back off a full-out bidding war over all parts of Murdoch's entertainment empire, with Comcast taking the Sky business for the $34 billion and Disney taking the rest of the Fox entertainment assets for $71 billion. If true, this would be in violation of security rules and may well block - or at the very least stall - Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox and its precious entertainment assets.

"It's too low", Odey, a former son-in-law of Murdoch whose eponymous hedge fund is a Sky shareholder, said of the sweetened Fox offer.