21st Century Fox recently lost to Comcast in a bidding battle. Fox, now under Disney, just didn't have enough to offer for control of Sky. Comcast managed to win the bidding by paying $40 billion for the right to own Sky.

It was a case of miscalculations for Sky. The leader in US cable, also the owner of Universal Studios as well as the broadcast studio NBC, tried to bid for Sky at $22.71 per share. This puts their evaluation of Sky at around $34.2 billion. It was only a few billion shies of Comcast's bid, according to The Telegraph UK. But while Fox failed to acquire Sky, Comcast comfortably took control of the company because of the miscalculation.

Fox still tried to make a bid for Sky, of which it was also the majority shareholder. It still tried to bid for the company at $20.59 a share, which placed its bid at less than the market standard. This process-unlikely for some watchers of the bidding process was presided over by the merger regulator Takeover Panel.

Sky would have given Fox a way to find a solution to waning subscriber counts in the US. Traditional cable TV in the country is going through a difficult time and chairman/chief executive Brian Roberts is interested in a non-traditional approach to solve these problems. Fox has been losing subscribers to other video-on-demand (VOD) services such as Amazon and Netflix.

Those plans were thwarted by Comcast, which offered an amount more than what Fox was able to offer. It also sets back plans for Disney, which would've brought another company under its control through Fox. Disney has also offered to buy Fox's assets to the tune of $71 billion. That included Fox's shares in Sky, and it would've controlled Sky outright if Fox managed a successful bid, Reuters reported.

Sky's directors, deputy chairman Martin Gilbert included, watched the bidding as it happened. When Comcast's offer came through, they quickly relayed it to themajority stockholders. Even Sky chief executive Jeremy Darroch was fielding bids, which came through from Fox and Comcast. Bankers and lawyers stood by to process the deal as it went through.

Comcast won through the decision of Martin Gilbert, who found the company's offered an "excellent outcome" for shareholders as well as the company. He further said that the company was committed to putting a swift and accurate end to the bidding.