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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – The controversial remarks of British Business Secretary Vince Cable over the plan by media mogul Robert Murdoch to buy BSkyB proved even beneficial to the satellite broadcast firm’s stocks. On Wednesday shares of BSkyB closed almost 2 percent higher.

The investor confidence on BSkyB’s stocks was attributed by traders to Cable being removed as a major obstacle to the $11.7 billion (GBP 7.8 billion) deal.

Although British Prime Minister David Cameron kept Cable as business secretary, he removed Cable’s oversight over media policy on Tuesday. With this development, investors are confident that regulator Ofcom would give the green light to the Murdoch takeover as early as January.

Prior to Cable’s comments, traders believed that Ofcom would first refer the deal to the Competition Commission, which would likely stretch the release of a decision on the takeover until September. Other traders now believe Ofcom has 20 percent chances of approving the sale immediately.

Cable previously threatened to block Murdoch’s company, News Corp, from purchasing 61 percent of BSkyB to consolidate Murdoch’s different businesses.

New Corp owns The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and The News of the World.

Cameron gave the media oversight powers of Cable to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who according to reports, met privately with Murdoch’s son James on June 28. That was shortly after News Corp announced its offer to purchase BSkyB.

The meeting placed Hunt’s relations with the Murdochs under scrutiny, just a day after he got the media oversight power from Cable. No other Department of Culture, Media and Sports officials were present at the private meeting between the younger Murdoch and the secretary, who had publicly stated he does not object to the News Corp buy-in of BSkyB.

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