Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has withdrawn its bid for British satellite broadcaster BSkyB in the wake of the growing scandal over newspaper phone-hacking, the company announced on Wednesday. The announcement came shortly before Britain’s House of Commons was to debate a government-backed motion calling on Murdoch to halt his attempt to acquire the 61-percent of BSkyB his company does not already own.
“We believed that the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News Corporation would benefit both companies but it has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate,” said Chase Carey, deputy chairman, president and chief operating officer of News Corp. in a statement. “News Corporation remains a committed long-term shareholder in BSkyB. We are proud of the success it has achieved and our contribution to it.”
Earlier, setting the tone, Cameron told a stormy weekly questions session in parliament that Murdoch should drop the bid: “What has happened at the company is disgraceful, it’s got to be addressed at every level and they should stop thinking about mergers when they’ve got to sort out the mess they’ve created.” Cameron faced new questions about why he hired as his spokesman a former editor who has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in hacking voicemails and bribing police. Cameron has repeatedly said he had believed assurances of innocence, but warned his former aide, if found to have lied to him, “should like others face the full force of the law”.
Giving details of a formal public inquiry into the affair, to be chaired by a senior judge, Brian Leveson, Cameron warned that senior executives, however high in the Murdoch organisation, should be barred for life from the British media if found to have taken part in any wrongdoing. While some analysts said it was too early to declare that the business was in serious retreat in Britain, many said that the sweeping political influence Murdoch had enjoyed over both left and right in politics seemed most suddenly curtailed. “This is a vote of seismic significance,” said politics professor Jonathan Tonge of Liverpool University.
“It could spell the beginning of the end for the Murdoch empire. “For decades now, successive prime ministers have cosied up to Murdoch. Now it’s a new era. “Political leaders will be falling over themselves to avoid close contact with media conglomerates. This is a turning of the tide — it’s parliament versus Murdoch at the moment.” Others, however, were cautious. “In the medium to longer term, the natural order will reassert itself,” said Steven Fielding, politics professor at Nottingham University. “People will forget what the News of the World did … and that people’s desire for tittle tattle, regardless of how it is found, will remain.
