Disney makes fresh bid for Fox, sending Sky higher

Sky shares spiked on Wednesday as 21st Century Fox agreed a new deal for Disney to acquire most of its entertainment assets.

Disney has agreed to pay $38 per Fox share, above the previously agreed purchase price of roughly $28.

"The amended and restated Disney merger agreement offers a package of consideration, flexibility and deal certainty enhancements that is superior to the proposal made by the Comcast Corporation on June 13, 2018," Fox said, adding that it Comcast's bid could not now reasonably be expected to result in a "company superior proposal".

Under the new deal, Disney's offer allows Fox shareholders to elect to receive cash or stock, subject to 50/50 proration.

Overnight, there were reports Fox was considering talks with Comcast over the cable network's recent bid of $65bn, which was around $10bn more than the Disney deal agreed six months earlier.

It was said that if the Fox board deems Comcast’s offer to be better, Disney could decide to propose a better bid for the assets. Comcast had offered Fox the $1.5bn sanction to cover a payment to Disney for breaking the previous deal.

If Comcast were to make another bid and win the war against Disney it could become one of the most indebted companies facing close to $85bn in debt, according to credit agency Moody’s. And this debt does not include the $27.5bn of debt, Moody’s believes would come from the takeover of satellite broadcaster Sky.