Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. is considering using proceeds from the sale of its Italian and German pay-TV assets to boost its offer for Time Warner Inc., according to two people familiar with the matter. 
 
 Fox may reach an agreement to sell its wholly-owned Sky Italia unit and its 57 percent stake in Sky Deutschland AG to British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc in the next two weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The assets could be valued at about 10 billion euros ($13.5 billion), people familiar with the matter said in May. Fox owns a 39 percent stake in BSkyB. 
 
 The proceeds could give Murdoch additional cash for a Time Warner bid without having to borrow more. While Fox is willing to pay more than $75 billion after Time Warner’s board rejected its $85 per-share bid, no final decision has been made on whether to bump the offer, the people said. JPMorgan & Chase Co., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the fifth-biggest, will help Murdoch finance the bid. 
 
 BSkyB and Fox disclosed their talks about a European transaction in May, weeks before Fox approached Time Warner. 
 
 Sky Deutschland shares advanced 3.8 percent to 6.66 euros at 3:39 p.m. in Frankfurt trading. BSkyB fell 1.6 percent to 903 pence in London. Fox dropped 0.3 percent to $32.90 and Time Warner declined 0.3 percent to $87.01 in New York. 
 
 Photographer: Jason South/The AGE/Fairfax Media via Getty Images Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. may reach an agreement to sell its holdings in Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland AG to British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc in the next two weeks, people said asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Close Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. may reach an agreement to sell its holdings in... Read More Close Open Photographer: Jason South/The AGE/Fairfax Media via Getty Images Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. may reach an agreement to sell its holdings in Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland AG to British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc in the next two weeks, people said asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. 
 
 A deal with New York-based Time Warner would reshape the media industry by giving Fox more clout in negotiations with pay-TV providers, which are pursuing their own mergers to build scale. Comcast Corp. agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. and AT&T Inc. struck a deal to buy DirecTV in recent months -- the two largest acquisitions of 2014. A Fox deal for Time Warner would trump both in size. 
 
 Agreement Looms 
 
 A Time Warner transaction could also trigger the sale of Fox’s stake in BSkyB, according to Credit Suisse Group AG analysts. BSkyB’s 39 percent holding has a market value of 5.6 billion pounds ($9.6 billion). Murdoch and his son James had tried twice to win control of BSkyB, most recently in 2011, when political fallout from a phone-hacking scandal at one of Murdoch’s U.K. newspapers prompted him to abandon the bid. 
 
 A sale of the BSkyB stake could help Fox boost the cash portion of its offer for Time Warner, Credit Suisse said last week in a note. 
 
 Julie Henderson, a spokeswoman for New York-based Fox, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Alice Macandrew, a BSkyB spokeswoman, declined to comment. 
 
 The Sunday Times reported yesterday that BSkyB Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Darroch is close to agreeing to a price for the purchase of the European assets from Fox. 
 
 Love Productions 
 
 A deal would give BSkyB, already the biggest pay-TV provider in the U.K., oversight of companies that sell satellite and cable programs to 8.5 million homes across Germany and Italy. By shedding the continental units, Fox would be left with cable and broadcast networks plus movie and TV studios, making it more attractive to investors who want to bet solely on video production -- not distribution. 
 
 BSkyB today said it bought a 70 percent stake in the U.K.’s Love Productions, producer of the “Great British Bake-off” and TV documentaries such as “Benefits Street” and “Baby Borrowers.” Sky Vision, the international distribution unit of BSkyB, will distribute Love Productions content. 
 
 Last week, BSkyB sold a minority stake in ITV Plc, the U.K.’s biggest commercial broadcaster with top-rated shows such as “Downton Abbey,” to John Malone’s Liberty Global Plc for 481 million pounds. 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Matthew Campbell in London at mcampbell39@bloomberg.net; Alex Sherman in New York at asherman6@bloomberg.net; Manuel Baigorri in London at mbaigorri@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net; Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net; Mohammed Hadi at mhadi1@bloomberg.net Robert Valpuesta ||||| News Corp. (NWSA)’s Rupert Murdoch, who’s been asked to testify in front of U.K. lawmakers, is facing at least six investigations stemming from a phone-hacking scandal and his bid to buy all of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. (BSY) 
 
 Murdoch may be in the spotlight on July 19 as he’s called to answer questions from the Parliament’s committee on Culture, Media and Sport about prior evidence that News Corp.’s British newspaper unit, News International, had paid police to get stories. The News Corp. Chief Executive Officer’s son, James, and the unit’s CEO Rebekah Brooks were also summoned to testify. News International said they will cooperate. 
 
 John Whittingdale, the committee’s chairman, told Sky News yesterday News International needs to answer questions about who knew of the crimes and when. 
 
 “The police inquiry is the most important thing and will lead to criminal charges against some people,” Whittingdale said. “Part of the problem with this saga is that everyday has brought a new revelation. I’ve given up being surprised.” 
 
 Rupert Murdoch arrived in London on July 10 to deal with a flurry of allegations that reporters at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid hacked into hundreds of mobile-phone voice mails, including those of murder and terror victims, and bribed police for confidential information. The scandal prompted Murdoch to close the 168-year old tabloid. 
 
 “They have misled parliament egregiously over time, they have misled the country, they’ve misled their readers and it’s incumbent,” on parliament to get the facts, Tom Watson, a member of the committee, told BBC Radio 4 yesterday. “We will be sitting next Tuesday and we expect them to be there.” 
 
 Police, Cameron 
 
 London’s Metropolitan Police are investigating, and Prime Minister David Cameron called for two other inquiries into why an initial police phone-hacking probe failed, how widespread the hacking was, and whether it also occurred at other newspapers. 
 
 The current police probe was opened in January after new information surfaced as the result of civil lawsuits filed by celebrities including actress Sienna Miller against the tabloid. Police opened a second investigation last week into police bribes. Meanwhile, communications regulator Ofcom and the U.K. Competition Commission are reviewing the proposed BSkyB deal. 
 
 Two watchdog groups, Media Matters for America and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics have called for U.S. lawmakers to investigate if journalists working for News Corp. hacked the voice mails of Americans. 
 
 Photographer: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images Rebekah Brooks, chief executive officer of News International Ltd. Close Rebekah Brooks, chief executive officer of News International Ltd. Close Open Photographer: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images Rebekah Brooks, chief executive officer of News International Ltd. 
 
 9/11 Victims 
 
 Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, called for U.S. agencies to investigate whether alleged phone hacking at News Corp.’s U.K. newspapers targeted American victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 
 
 “I am concerned that the admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans,” Rockefeller, said yesterday in a statement posted on the website of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which he chairs. “If they did, the consequences will be severe.” 
 
 News International is assisting the Metropolitan Police in their investigation, Brooks said in a July 8 memo to staff. Joel Klein, who heads News Corp.’s education unit, is leading and directing the company’s overall handling of the matter, Brooks said. Klein, the former chancellor of New York City schools, was also the head of the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division. 
 
 Brooks said in the memo that News Corp. isn’t conducting its own investigation. 
 
 Damage Limitation 
 
 “One of the real challenges for the company will be dealing with all of these inquiries running in parallel with overlapping goals,” Nick Benwell, the head of the crime, fraud and investigations group at Simmons & Simmons in London, said in an interview yesterday. “They’ll be very keen to limit the damage and keep it to a News of the World issue.” 
 
 Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News Corp.'s chairman for Europe and Asia James Murdoch arrives at the offices of News International in London. Close News Corp.'s chairman for Europe and Asia James Murdoch arrives at the offices of News... Read More Close Open Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News Corp.'s chairman for Europe and Asia James Murdoch arrives at the offices of News International in London. 
 
 Miranda Higham, a spokeswoman for New York-based News Corp., declined to comment on the scope and expense of the probes or any distraction they may cause management. Murdoch, his son and Brooks aren’t required to appear at the parliamentary hearing. 
 
 “They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” said Niri Shan, the head of media law at Taylor Wessing LLP. “If they don’t appear it looks like they have got something to hide. If they do, whatever they say is going to lead to growing scrutiny of the issue.” 
 
 ‘Lack of Cooperation’ 
 
 Murdoch avoided an in-depth probe into the tactics of reporters at the paper for years after its former royal reporter, Clive Goodman, and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 for tapping phones of members of the royal family. The police closed an investigation in December, citing a lack of evidence. 
 
 News International blocked an earlier police inquiry into phone hacking by its “complete lack of cooperation” and “lies,” Peter Clarke, former deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told lawmakers on Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee yesterday. 
 
 “This is a global organization with access to the best legal advice in my view deliberately trying to thwart a criminal investigation,” Clarke said as he tried to explain why police between 2006 and 2010 refused to extend their investigation into illegal activities by journalists at the News of the World. “I was certain as could be that they had something to hide.” 
 
 Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday accused Murdoch’s newspapers of using criminals to get stories about him while he was in office and said he was reduced to tears when the Sun tabloid phoned him to say its reporters obtained his son’s medical records showing he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. 
 
 BSkyB Bid 
 
 News Corp. said it didn’t access the medical records of Brown’s son nor did it commission anyone to do so. The story came from a member of the public whose family also experienced cystic fibrosis, the company said in an e-mailed statement. 
 
 The phone hacking revelations have overwhelmed the company’s BSkyB bid. News Corp. on July 11 rescinded its offer to spin off Sky News as part of the BSkyB buyout, pushing U.K. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to refer the bid to the Competition Commission for a review. 
 
 BSkyB shares declined 1.8 percent to 679.5 pence in London trading as of 11:37 a.m., less than the 700 pence a share offered by News Corp. for the 61 percent it doesn’t already own. 
 
 Hunt said the latest review, which follows investigations by Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading, will focus on media plurality, whether the deal would reduce the number of voices. Ofcom, which has the power to revoke BSkyB’s license, can still hold up the deal as it considers whether News Corp. should own BSkyB and said it’s monitoring the police probe. 
 
 BSkyB Vote 
 
 The regulator is likely to wait until the investigation concludes before deciding whether News Corp. is “fit and proper” to own a U.K. broadcaster, said Chris Watson, a telecommunications lawyer at CMS Cameron McKenna in London. 
 
 “In merger control issues, they ought to be quite reluctant for approving the deal,” Watson said. The finality of a decision “requires you to be very hesitant.” 
 
 Cameron joined other politicians pushing for News Corp. to drop the BSkyB bid as the scandal widened and said he would support the opposition Labour Party in a non-binding vote on the issue today. On July 8, he called for a judge-led inquiry and a second review that can begin this summer to “look at how our newspapers are regulated and make recommendations for the future.” 
 
 Chris Goodall, a media analyst at London-based Enders Analysis, said the volume of activity will be difficult for News Corp. to manage. 
 
 “The people who would usually be running the business end up spending a large fraction of their time working on the regulatory and political stuff,” Goodall said. “It’s continuous requests for data.” 
 
 To contact the reporter for this story: Lindsay Fortado in London at lfortado@bloomberg.net; Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net. ||||| News Corp.’s James Murdoch will remain as chairman of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc (BSY) following a board meeting of the U.K.’s biggest pay-TV broadcaster, according to a person familiar with the matter. 
 
 Murdoch, 38, has the unanimous support of the board of directors after his position was discussed during the meeting, the person said, declining to be identified because the matter is confidential. The board will continue to monitor events, the person said. BSkyB declined to comment. 
 
 The broadcaster’s board came under pressure to review Murdoch’s role as non-executive chairman after his testimony to U.K. lawmakers on July 19 over the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World tabloid was contradicted by two former employees. While the hacking incidents took place before he started overseeing News Corp. (NWSA)’s U.K. newspaper publishing unit in 2007, Murdoch authorized settlements to hacking victims that are now being questioned. 
 
 The 14-person board also had planned to discuss whether BSkyB will return cash to shareholders, with a share buyback a more likely option than a one-time dividend, one person said yesterday. BSkyB stock dropped 17 percent in seven days before the hacking allegations forced News Corp. to shelve its 7.8 billion-pound ($12.7 billion) offer for full control of the U.K. pay-TV company. News Corp., chaired by James's fatherRupert Murdoch, is BSkyB’s biggest shareholder with a 39 percent stake. 
 
 Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg James Murdoch’s entanglement in the hacking scandal has raised questions about his... Read More James Murdoch’s entanglement in the hacking scandal has raised questions about his future as BSkyB chairman. Close Close Open Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg James Murdoch’s entanglement in the hacking scandal has raised questions about his future as BSkyB chairman. 
 
 ‘Feeling Bruised’ 
 
 “Shareholders in the round are feeling bruised after the share price collapse over the last two to three weeks,” said Alex de Groote, an analyst at Panmure Gordon in London. “Realistically there’s not going to be a bid for Sky for the foreseeable future so they want to be compensated for that.” 
 
 News Corp. is dealing with three probes by police and regulators into phone hacking at the News of the World. At least 10 people have been arrested, including former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, and ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was Prime Minister David Cameron’s press chief until January. 
 
 BSkyB’s board meeting took place as New York-based News Corp. separately surveys its biggest shareholders on Murdoch family control, the company’s dual-class stock structure and the independence of its board, according to three people familiar with the matter. 
 
 Rising Earnings 
 
 The survey results may be shared with the board, said the people. News Corp.’s goal is to inform and frame shareholder communications, one person said. Sard Verbinnen & Co., the public-relations firm hired to respond to phone-hacking and police bribery allegations at News Corp.’s U.K. newspaper unit, has been conducting the conversations. Some investors were offered to speak with Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey. 
 
 BSkyB may say tomorrow that earnings before interest and taxes rose 29 percent to 1.05 billion pounds in the year through June, helped by the addition of high-definition TV subscribers, according to the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. 
 
 The last time BSkyB shares fell more over a seven-day period was in August 2004, when James Murdoch, then chief executive officer, announced an expanded spending plan, a target for more than 10 million subscribers and returning cash to shareholders via share buybacks. 
 
 Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with News Corp. units in providing financial news and information. 
 
 News Corp., which owns Fox News and the Wall Street Journal in the U.S., rose 2.5 percent to $16.40 at 12:01 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. 
 
 New Allegations 
 
 The News of the World newspaper also targeted a mobile phone it gave to a murdered girl’s mother, a charity she set up said today. 
 
 Sara Payne’s eight-year-old daughter, Sarah, was murdered in 2000 by a convicted pedophile, leading her to start a campaign to allow parents to find out if sex offenders lived near them. The campaign was supported by the News of the World, which provided Payne with a mobile phone for the next 11 years. 
 
 Police have now found evidence that suggests Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator who was convicted in 2007 of hacking phones for the News of the World, targeted Payne, Phoenix Chief Advocates, part of the Payne charity, said in a statement on its website. “Sara is absolutely devastated by this news, we’re all deeply disappointed,” the charity said. 
 
 The scandal at the News Corp. tabloid intensified after the Guardian newspaper reported July 4 that the newspaper hacked into the phone of Milly Dowler, who was murdered in 2002. 
 
 “These allegations are abhorrent and particularly upsetting as Sara Payne is dear friend,” Brooks, the editor of the News of the World in 2000, said in an e-mailed statement today. “The idea that anyone on the newspaper knew that Sara or the campaign team were targeted by Mr. Mulcaire is unthinkable. The idea of her being targeted is beyond my comprehension.” 
 
 To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Jonathan Browning at jbrowning9@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net
– News Corp is in hot pursuit of British Sky Broadcasting, offering it $11.5 billion for the 61% of the British pay channel it doesn’t already own, according to the company’s own Wall Street Journal. That 700 pence-per-share offer was an improvement on the 675 pence-per-share reported last night, according to the Guardian, but Sky rejected it, saying it wouldn’t accept less than 800 pence-per-share. The two sides have, however, agreed to work together to acquire regulatory approval, and reach a mutually-agreeable price. Rupert Murdoch's son, James, is Sky's non-executive chairman, but won't participate in the talks. “I wouldn’t think News Corp. would enter into this if they didn’t think they were going to get BSkyB,” one analyst told Bloomberg. Sky’s price shot up 19% to 715 pence on the news, its biggest jump in 10 years.