Shareholders have moved to give overwhelming backing to US media company Discovery Communications’ planned takeover of cable television network owner Scripps Networks Interactive, as officials await news of potential regulatory challenges to the deal.
The Deadline.com website said shareholders of Discovery and Scripps gave their support for the takeover at separate meetings.
Discovery reported 258.2 million votes in favour and 2.8 million against, with 104,127 abstentions. Scripps gained 102.3 million votes in favour versus 273,147 opposed and 103,061 abstaining.
In July, Discovery sealed a deal to acquire Scripps, with the agreement valued at $14.6bn (€12.6bn).
The purchase price implies a total cash and stock transaction value of $14.6bn, including the assumption of Scripps’ net debt of approximately $2.7bn.
Following closure of the deal, Scripps’ shareholders will own approximately 20 per cent of Discovery’s fully diluted common shares and Discovery’s shareholders will own approximately 80 per cent.
Discovery operates international sports broadcaster Eurosport, while Scripps, which owns various entertainment channels, in June participated in a funding round for US OTT service fuboTV. Scripps also operates Polish media company TVN, a major sports broadcaster in the country.
The news comes as the US Department of Justice yesterday (Monday) said it will challenge the proposed takeover by telecommunications company AT&T of US media company Time Warner.
Deadline noted that major Discovery shareholder John Malone said during Liberty Media’s investor day last week that the Scripps deal was receiving a “little more of a look … than we would have expected.”
He added that there is still a “high expectation” the deal will be approved, but it remained unclear as to the intentions of the DoJ. “We don’t know yet exactly what their concerns are and what the hot buttons will be,” Malone said.