'Delaying tactic' as Sky bid halted by Rupert Murdoch

News Corporation's decision to pull its BSkyB bid was tonight being viewed in the City as a mere delaying tactic.

The move is likely to have been driven through by News Corp deputy chairman Chase Carey, who is widely seen to have been the man behind the decision to axe the News of the World.

However, analysts suggested that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp would be back bidding for the business again, possibly in less than a year.

Richard Hunter of stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown said: "My gut reaction is that this is just an attempt to delay the process until the current furore around the phone hacking scandal dies down.

It was clear that they were looking to put it on hold earlier this week when they sought the Competition Commission review. They will be back within a year."

Jane Coffey, fund manager at Royal London Asset Management agreed the deal was not dead yet: "It's all become too political now, but this doesn't mean that he's withdrawn the bid forever."

Carey said in a statement: "We believed that the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News Corporation would benefit both companies but it has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate. News Corporation remains a committed long-term shareholder in BSkyB. We are proud of the success it has achieved and our contribution to it."

However, Claire Enders, media analyst of Enders Analysis, said it was unlikely that News Corp would launch a new bid for BSkyB even in a year. She said it would focus on "cleaning up" its other UK operations.

Enders said: "They can move to tidy up their assets in the UK and solve these on-going problems first. It has been mooted they would sell their UK newspapers. I think that would be a perfectly reasonable approach if those newspapers are not cash-generative enough.

"They can sit quietly with [their existing 39% stake in] Sky and they won't be benefiting as much [as if they owned 100%] but they can clean up their operation and bid again one day. They are taking the view, they can tend to their current problems before thinking of the next corporate move."