NTL abandons ITV bid

by Olivia Solon, Media Week 06-Dec-06, 16:39

NTL has announced that it will abandon its £5 billion bid to take over ITV saying that a deal would be "unlikely to be attained on terms acceptable to NTL."

The news comes after BSkyB made a surprise swoop on ITV and priced the cable operator out of the market.
The cable operator also revealed that it had complained to media regulator Ofcom about BSkyB's buy-in, citing "serious competition and public interest issues"

"The fact that Sky would spend nearly $2bn to acquire its stake immediately following the mere announcement of NTL's proposed combination, before the ITV board had an opportunity to respond, highlights the magnitude of the competition issues involved," it said.

NTL could not match the 135p share price set when BSkyB acquired the 17.9% stake at the end of November. NTL offered just 105p per share and a portion of NTL shares when it first approached the broadcaster in the start of November.
Under ‘The City Code', NTL may only make a formal approach for ITV within the next six months if BSkyB sold all or part of its share or the bid was backed by the ITV board.