Murdoch drops bid for BSkyB

Associated Press

LONDON

Rupert Murdoch’s dream of controlling a British broadcasting behemoth has evaporated after he withdrew his bid for BSkyB — the latest, biggest casualty of what Prime Minister David Cameron called the hacking “firestorm” sweeping through British politics, media and police.

Cameron appointed a senior judge to lead an inquiry into the phone hacking and police bribery scandal engulfing Murdoch’s British newspapers, and promised it would investigate whether Murdoch’s reporters sought the phone numbers of 9/11 victims in their quest for sensational scoops.

As lawmakers from all the country’s main parties united to demand that Murdoch’s News Corp. withdraw its bid for British Sky Broadcasting, the media magnate bowed to the inevitable, accepting that he could not win government approval for the multibillion-dollar takeover.

Shares in BSkyB fell 4 percent after the announcement, but rebounded as uncertainty about the company’s immediate future was lifted and closed 2 percent higher.

Murdoch had hoped to gain control of the 61 percent of BSkyB shares that he doesn’t already own.

But the deal unraveled with stunning speed after a rival newspaper reported that Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid had hacked into the phone of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 and may have impeded a police investigation into the 13-year-old’s disappearance.