In a further blow to Rupert Murdoch, a $2 billion takeover bid by an Australian pay-TV business part-owned by his News Corp is expected to be blocked by the country's competition watchdog.
The bid by Foxtel, in which News Corp has a 25 percent stake, for rival Austar will create a pay-TV monopoly, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said. Austar shares plunged as much as 20 per cent.
The commission insisted its preliminary finding had nothing to do with the phone hacking scandal engulfing News Corp in Britain, which prompted Murdoch to abandon a separate pay-TV deal to fully take over British firm BSkyB .
