With almost every member in Parliament, of all the parties, chomping at the bit to pass a law to ban his bid to take over the UK’s biggest satellite network, he has announced that he will withdraw the bid:

Rupert Murdoch withdrew his bid for broadcaster BSkyB on Wednesday, as outrage over alleged crimes at his newspapers galvanized a rare united front in parliament against a man long used to being courted by Britain’s political elite.

The Australian-born billionaire’s U.S.-based News Corp, thwarted in a key move to expand its media empire in television, said it would keep its 39 percent of the highly profitable pay-TV network, but left investors guessing over whether it might try again to buy up the rest, or even sell up.

The withdrawal removes the most pressing political conflict the company faced. But a police probe and new public inquiries into the scandal and into media regulation as a whole may keep an unflattering spotlight on it and weaken the influence the 80-year-old media magnate has enjoyed in Britain for decades.

I think that this is a tactical move.  He’s holding onto his 30% stake in BSkyB, so if everything is back to business as usual in 9 months, I expect him to go for another bite at the apple.

I’m kind of hoping that  things won’t be back to “business as usual” in 9 months.