The Primary Goal for Comcast of Acquiring Sky Plc
Every commercial organization aims to outstand its competitors and thus cover as larger a market share as possible. Currently, various methods of creating a competitive advantage exist, and, being one of them, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are widely used to strengthen a company’s market position. Several factors can precede M&A, including a company’s strive for synergy, diversification, and concentration to survive the competition (Green, 2017).
The latter aspects can allow combining several businesses’ advantages and securing their weaknesses by penetrating deeper into a market and offering a broader spectrum of services. Therefore, Roberts, who is the CEO of Comcast, stated that the services of Sky Plc would help his company spread internationally and appeal to European customers rapidly (as cited in James, 2018). Moreover, Comcast, like other television corporations, has been suffering from the growing competition of video streaming businesses, such as Netflix, whereas Sky offers both streaming services and satellite television (James, 2018). As it is seen, the main goal of Comcast’s decision was to improve the positions in the national market and integrate into the European television segment.
The Primary Goal for Sky Plc Allowing Comcast to Buy It
While an acquiring company is required to make an offer, a target company keeps the right to either accept it or not. Recently, Sky has experienced severe competition, which later resulted in a rare auction between the major US buyers willing to acquire it. The winning $40-billion bid of Comcast considerably surpassed the bid of 21st Century Fox (James, 2018). Thus, this fact demonstrates that the wide price gap between the two proposals provoked Sky to agree to the arrangement.
The other goal that Sky may have pursued by accepting the acquisition is to strengthen the business in Europe and develop it overseas. The main opportunities Sky may want to use are Comcast’s readiness to work on Sky conditions and the US television contracts. The company has already arranged several exclusive deals in sports and television series broadcasting, so the ambition of the company may be to become partners with more significant media corporations.
The Factors That May Have Contributed to Sky Share Prices’ Growth.
While the stock market is an unpredictable mechanism, the contributing elements to the growth of share price can be only roughly determined. However, the further five factors may have had the most likely impact on Sky share price:
- increased interest of major foreign investors,
- revenue growth of Sky Plc in past two years,
- recent customer base growth,
- appropriate management, and
- service uniqueness.
After Comcast and Fox started proactively trading over Sky Limited during the recent years (James, 2018), the demand may have increased due to the companies’ accelerated trading activity.
Investors, whose decisions affect the stock market, often pay attention to revenue indexes when deciding to acquire stocks. Sky Limited has been creating considerable revenue growth in the past two years (“Sky plc,” 2018).
A company can expect its price to grow as the result of customer base growth (Cohan, 2017). Sky Plc has recently spread its media services to several European countries and thus created again in customer base (James, 2018).
Qualitative management can lead a company to accomplish its goals. As the CEO of Comcast mentioned, Sky owns a team of competent managers, and its achievements are visible in the recently reached goals of Sky (James, 2018).
The services of Sky in Europe are unique due to the exclusive foreign contracts with HBO and other corporations, sports translation, and a streaming system that is in demand nowadays (James, 2018).
Analysis of Share Prices’ Monthly Return
A measured index for this question is share price monthly return. The data concerning Comcast and Sky’s share return is calculated using the share return formula and the monthly share prices of the firms (“Sky plc,” 2018; “Comcast Corporation,” 2018).
Actions of Shareholders
If a matter concerns the stock market, the ultimate decision can hardly be found. If one were a shareholder of Sky Plc, he would attempt one of two options: either sell the shares and thus create profit, or continue his ownership with an expectation of the company’s further growth in value (Bodie, Kane, & Marcus, 2017). As Sky demonstrates qualitative monthly share return and has recently participated in a promising merge, one should probably remain the share to the further increase in value.
A shareholder of Comcast would have to decide in a different way. On the one hand, Comcast has spent a large sum on purchasing Sky and now has difficulties with gaining share price, which is also demonstrated on the chart of share price monthly return. On the other hand, the acquired company may benefit the parent corporation by accomplishing the tasks set initially by the acquisition, and Comcast can grow in price noticeably. However, in either situation, a Comcast shareholder may need to purchase Sky stocks to diversify the risks.
Returns Discussion
The two companies’ share return analysis allows making several important conclusions. The Sky return proves to have a rather positive trend, while the Comcast return is rather in a flat position. While there was an increase in Sky and decrease in Comcast at the time of the deal, the charts tend to equalize eventually. Sky Limited demonstrates a larger increase in the index, which is possibly due to the investors’ attitude to the media firm after it was acquired for an unexpectedly large bid.
References
Bodie, Z., Kane, A., & Marcus, A. J. (2017). Essentials of investments. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Cohan, P. S. (2017). Disciplined growth strategies: Insights from the growth trajectories of successful and unsuccessful companies. New York, NY: Apress.
Comcast Corporation (CMCSA). (2018). Web.
Green, M. B. (2018). Mergers and acquisitions. In International encyclopedia of geography: People, the Earth, environment and technology. (2018 ed., pp.1-9). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
James, M. (2018). Comcast outbids Fox and Walt Disney Co. with $40-billion offer for Europe’s Sky TV. Los Angeles Times. Web.
Sky plc (SKY.L). (2018). Web.