21st Century Fox Inc. is in late-stage discussions to buy Sky PLC, the U.K.'s market-leading pay-TV provider, as Fox moves to consolidate its holdings. Fox already owns about 39% of the company.

Sky said Friday that it reached a preliminary agreement for £ 10.75 per share in cash ($13.52) but that certain material offer terms remain under discussion. The roughly $15 billion offer was a 40% premium to Sky's Dec. 6 closing price. Its shares were recently up 32%.

If completed, the deal would value Sky at about £ 18.48 billion.

Rupert Murdoch and his family are major shareholders in both 21st Century Fox and News Corp., parent company of The Wall Street Journal.

News Corp. in 2011 dropped a bid to take full control of Sky amid a political firestorm ignited by reporting tactics at one of its U.K. newspaper titles.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 09, 2016 12:05 ET (17:05 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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