21st Century Fox announced on Tuesday they were withdrawing the proposal to acquire Time Warner.
CEO Rupert Murdoch said in a statement that the proposal was the result of seeing an opportunity to combine the two companies in a friendly manner. "However, Time Warner management and its Board refused to engage with us to explore an offer which was highly compelling."
In addition to Time Warner's unfavorable reaction, the dip in share prices of Fox stock after the proposal was announced made Fox wary as stockholders clearly were worried the company might overpay for the other company.
So along with the withdrawal of the proposal, Fox announced that the company will look to buy back $6 billion in shares, which should be completed in about a year. "This significant return of capital underscores the Company's ongoing commitment to disciplined capital allocation and returning value to shareholders in a meaningful way," the CEO said.
In the middle of July 21st Century made an offer to buy Time Warner for the sum of $80 billion. The other company quickly rejected the offer, but Murdoch made it known he wasn't going to back off.
Time Warner clearly wasn't too interested in being bought out, so the board moved to alter bylaws. The changes were made to how special meetings were called.
The changes, meant to only be temporary, made it so that a special meeting could only be called by the CEO or board majority, instead of just 15 percent of shareholders.
image via INFphoto.com