BskyB can appeal Competition ruling
March 20, 2009
BSkyB has won permission to appeal against a Competition Appeal Tribunal ruling forcing it to reduce its 17.9% stake in ITV to below 10%. Last November, the Competition Appeal Tribunal rejected an appeal against the original ruling in October 2007 that the deal had restricted competition but Sky went to the Court of Appeal which has granted permission for Sky to pursue an appeal
Sky bought its stake for £940m in November 2006 in a bid to prevent a takeover of ITV by Virgin Media.
Sky could hundreds of millions by being forced to sell its ITV stake: ITV’s share price has plummeted from 116.5p to 21p since it bought the stake in 2006. Ironically ITV – which has campaigned to get Sky off its share register – may be relieved, if the Sky equity was dumped on the market it would trigger a further sharp fall in the share price of the floundering broadcaster.