News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB early July, despite public opposition to the deal, "Government says its ready to give clearance to deal. Jeremy Hunt gives opponents one final week to raise objections. However, he has provisionally agreed to proposals that will see Sky News be spun off as an independent company to allay fears the deal would give Mr Murdoch's News Corporation too much control of the media. After the consultation ends on July 8, Mr Hunt is expected to wave the merger through once and for all. He is keen to give final confirmation by July 19 when the summer parliamentary recess begins." Several
News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB likely (according to a later Telegraph investigation) by two former Telegraph employees who had moved to News International, a News Corporation subsidiary. Hunt was much more sympathetic to the takeover bid than Cable. The second turning point was the series of revelations in early July of the hacking of the phones of non-celebrity victims by the "News of the World", a tabloid newspaper published by News International. Details of the activities, especially regarding the paper's hacking into the voicemail of murder victim Milly Dowler, sparked widespread outrage against News Corporation. Attempts to defuse the scandal by closing the "News of