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News Corp is lone bidder for DirecTV
New York, Apr 03: An attempt by US telephone company SBC Communications to buy satellite TV provider DirecTV from General Motors has broken down. This leaves Rupert Murdoch`s News Corp as the only serious bidder.
New York, Apr 03: An attempt by US telephone company SBC Communications to buy satellite TV provider DirecTV from General Motors has broken down. This leaves Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp as the only serious bidder.
The news sparked a sharp rally in News Corp’s Australian shareson Wednesday as investors calculated Murdoch was now in a strong position to hammer out an attractive deal with GM. The shares ended up 3.8% at A$11.03.
SBC, based in San Antonio (Texas), had been in talks with GM about buying all or part of Hughes Electronics Corp, the parent company of DirecTV, since early this year.
But those negotiations fell apart this week when both sides “fell out of alignment” on the structure of the deal, a source said. “It appears to be an uncontested bid for DirecTV. At this stage, you’d have to say that GM really doesn’t have too many options, despite their apparent unwillingness to sell to News Corp,” said Scott Maddocks, fund manager at BT Financial Group in Sydney.
It remained unclear whether SBC may re-enter the bidding process. The No 2 US telephone company had wanted to acquire DirecTV to help accelerate its high-speed internet plans, but was not interested in all of Hughes, a source said.
“GM seems to have found a better alternative somewhere else,” a source said. That alternative is likely to be Murdoch, who has been pursuing an acquisition of Hughes since GM first put it on the block two years ago. Bureau Report
SBC, based in San Antonio (Texas), had been in talks with GM about buying all or part of Hughes Electronics Corp, the parent company of DirecTV, since early this year.
But those negotiations fell apart this week when both sides “fell out of alignment” on the structure of the deal, a source said. “It appears to be an uncontested bid for DirecTV. At this stage, you’d have to say that GM really doesn’t have too many options, despite their apparent unwillingness to sell to News Corp,” said Scott Maddocks, fund manager at BT Financial Group in Sydney.
It remained unclear whether SBC may re-enter the bidding process. The No 2 US telephone company had wanted to acquire DirecTV to help accelerate its high-speed internet plans, but was not interested in all of Hughes, a source said.
“GM seems to have found a better alternative somewhere else,” a source said. That alternative is likely to be Murdoch, who has been pursuing an acquisition of Hughes since GM first put it on the block two years ago. Bureau Report