Sky Offers to Relinquish Some ITV Voting Rights

LONDON, October 30: In its efforts to appease the
Competition Commission, BSkyB has offered to give up part of the voting rights
from its acquisition of a 17.9-percent stake in ITV.

The Competition Commission has ruled that the Sky/ITV deal
is anticompetitive, and British press reports indicate that Sky’s offer may not
be enough to alleviate the British regulator’s concerns. The satellite platform
has offered to place voting rights for 3 percent of ITV in a trust. "The
remaining shareholding of 14.9 per cent is clearly insufficient, on any
reasonable basis of calculation, to block a special resolution," BSkyB
said.

—By Mansha Daswani