[July 13, 2011] 2ND LEAD: Rupert Murdoch drops bid for BSkyB Eds: Adds politics to slug Tweet LONDON, Jul 13, 2011 (dpa - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has withdrawn its bid for British satellite broadcaster BSkyB, the company said in a statement Wednesday. The dramatic announcement came just hours before a parliamentary vote asking the media tycoon to abandon the controversial bid. Murdoch, 80, had been planning to take full control of the British pay-TV channel, of which he already owns 39 per cent. The deal, worth 8 billion pounds (12.7 billion dollars) had been referred to the Competition Commission in Britain. The British government immediately welcome Murdoch's decision to drop the bid, which had become increasingly untenable in the wake of a damaging phone-hacking scandal that engulfed Murdoch newspapers in Britain. In an unusual move, all three main parties -- the Conservatives, the Liberals and Labour -- had agreed to unite behind the call that it would be in the "public interest" for Murdoch's News Corporation to drop the bid. Recent allegations about the hacking of voicemails have centred on The News of the World, a best-selling Sunday tabloid closed down by Murdoch last week, but also on other newspapers in the Murdoch empire. It is alleged that nearly 4,000 individuals were "targeted" for phone hacking by staff employed by News International. A total of 5,000 landlines and 4,000 mobiles were intercepted, according to an ongoing police investigation. To see more of dpa, go to http://www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html Copyright (c) 2011, dpa, Berlin Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]