Lehman Brothers has sold a quick £67m (€109m) block of shares in British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) for British Telecommunications (BT), removing another layer of the overhang depressing the broadcasting group's share price.

The sale came after Vivendi Universal announced that it may not sell its 22% stake in BSkyB into the open market. The French media group had been told by the European Commission to sell the holding by December 2002 as a condition for approval of Vivendi's acquisition of Seagram, the media group, in June 2000.