News Corporation and BSkyB takeover

Let aside the political issues of this takeover or merger, what is interesting from a strategic management perspective is the efforts of News Corp to develop synergies (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14104397) between different media platforms. This is a clear corporate direction (see a good review of the various attempts http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2011/jan/05/news-corp-bskyb-david-elstein). An interesting question is why BSkyB was not part of the News Corp from the beginning since it was established by the same company (for a brief history/evolution of the company see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UK_satellite_TV_evolution_vector.svg), which should probably be attributed to risk management by News Corp. The other point which worth taking is that merger is the only strategic option as the legislation would not allow for collaborations and synergies via some sort of strategic alliance.