Murdoch's Sky takeover blocked by UK competition watchdog
Rupert Murdoch has been blocked by the UK's competition watchdog from completing a full buyout of Sky. The media tycoon, which already owns 21st Century Fox and a range of newspapers including The Times , The Sunday Times and The Sun , launched a £11.7 billion ($14.6 billion) takeover bid in December 2016. If successful, it would give the Murdoch family full control of Sky News, as well as the company's extensive TV, internet and phone businesses in the UK. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) rejected the idea, however, due to "media plurality" concerns, or how much power the resulting company would have over public opinion. "We have provisionally found that if the Fox/Sky merger went ahead as proposed, it would be against the public interest," Anne Lambert, chair of the independent investigation group said. "It would result in the Murdoch family having too much control over news providers in the UK, and too much influence over public opin...