Amazon ‘among bidders’ for Fox US sports networks

Amazon will be among the bidders for the 22 US regional sports networks to be sold off by Disney to secure regulatory approval for its takeover of 21^st Century Fox’s entertainment business, according to a report by CNBC.

According to CNBC, citing unnamed sources, Amazon is bidding for all 22 networks, including a joint bid with an unnamed sovereign wealth fund for the New York YES Network, home to New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets games, which may be sold separately from the other stations.

Other first round bidders for the networks included Apollo Global Management, KKR, The Blackstone Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tegna, according to the news outfit.

Fox, whose chairman Lachlan Murdoch had raised the possibility that his group could bid to buy the sports networks back, was not among the bidders in the first round. Fox acquired its 80% interest in YES in separate transactions in 2012 and 2014.

In June, the US Department of Justice cleared Disney’s bid for Fox’s entertainment business on condition that it sold the sports networks.