The Competition Appeal Tribunal has ordered BSkyB to pay the legal costs involved in its struggle to hold onto its 17.9% stake in ITV.
It follows applications made by the Competition Commission, the Secretary of State for Business and Virgin Media for their costs in challenging BSkyB’s judicial review proceedings.
In March, BSkyB was awarded the right to appeal against the Competition Commission’s ruling that it should reduce its holding in ITV to a maximum of 7.5%.
Should Sky lose in the Court of Appeal it faces a massive writedown on the £940 million (€1.11 billion), or 135p per share it paid in November 2006, compared to today’s 34.75p. At the time ITV was facing a takeover approach from Virgin Media, the former NTL.
