Sky boss Jeremy Darroch is not the sort to indulge in schadenfreude, but he could be forgiven for feeling a little smug this morning. On Friday, the pay-TV giant’s market value soared to £23.6bn, surpassing arch-rival BT for the first time.
Sky investors have the American media mogul Brian Roberts to thank for their good fortune. Last week, the head of cable giant Comcast flew into London with an offer to pay £12.50 a share for Sky — a hefty premium to the £10.75 bid from parent 21st Century Fox.
Until last week, Rupert Murdoch (Fox’s executive co-chairman and chairman of NewsCorp, publisher of The Sunday Times) was expected to fulfil his longstanding ambition of gaining full control of Sky. Yet Roberts’s intervention has thrust