The battle that has been brewing for months over the move of BSkyB in buying a 17.9 percent stake in ITV, which effectively kept Virgin Media from taking over the company, will go to the next stage, as this week Business secretary John Hutton will decide if BSkyB must sell part of their share in the company.
Britain's Competition Commission ruled that the Rupert Murdoch-owned BSkyB must divest some of its stake, down to below 7.5 percent. Hutton will decide if the ruling will be accepted or not.
The mood in the British press is that Hutton will at least force Sky to sell part of their stake in ITV, which could cause Sky to lose hundreds of millions, whether measured in US dollars or British pounds. They bought the stake over a year ago for £940m.
There's no way of knowing at this time what will eventually happen, regardless of Hutton's decision. The response of Sky to the decision will determine where things will go for the near future.
As a Sky spokesman said, "We will not make a decision on appeals until after we have received the Secretary of State's decision."
Depending on the decison and response, this will probably drag on for some time to come, and the shares of ITV will continue on at their historic lows.
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