December 22, 2003, 9:33 AM — The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved News Corporation Ltd.'s bid to purchase a controlling interest in General Motors Corp. subsidiary Hughes Electronics Corp, subject to certain conditions, the agency announced Friday.
Under the terms of the US$6.6 billion deal, Hughes would become an independent company, and News Corp., with a 34 percent stake in the company, would become the largest single shareholder in Hughes, giving it a de facto controlling interest in the company.
The deal would give News Corp. control of Hughes' DirecTV satellite television service, which services 11 million homes in the U.S.
Unlike an earlier proposed merger of DirecTV with satellite rival EchoStar Communications Corp., which the FCC blocked in October 2002, the News Corp. acquisition will yield "significant benefits to the public," said Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the FCC, in a statement released on Friday.
The purchase was opposed by two of the FCC's five commissioners and was criticized as a "green light for the next great wave of media consolidation" in a statement by dissenting commissioner Michael J. Copps.
The U.S. Department of Justice will not challenge the acquisition, it said in a statement Friday.
