Yes they could return cash now and then sell the business for less after...
But I still suspect Sky is the target. There is nothing of material size that they could buy with the cash they have, and don't appear to want to take on debt.
They would have been getting ready to fork out a good chunk of the cash to shareholders when something changed that made them cancel the investor day.
If they were in the process of buying something I don't see why they would cancel the investor day altogether. You would still hold it, and if the purchase wasn't done by then you would just say that you are still looking into some attractive opportunities and will have more to say in August, meanwhile this is how we continue to execute on the strategy etc etc...
But that isn't what happened. They just shitcanned the whole thing at the last minute.
To me (and I appreciate this is speculation) they are in conversations with one or more parties who either want to buy sky outright or want to become a big cornerstone investor.
The talks aren't advanced enough to need a market disclosure but they are positive enough to warrant canceling the investor day.
I could be way off the mark here. But somehow I don't think so.
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