RSS feednews corp
’BSkyB investors should believe in better
As BSkyB shares retreated toward the 700p level in late London trading on Tuesday, News Corporation’s stock moved sharply higher in New York.
That’s even though a bid for the UK satellite company is supposed to be bad news,
Putting up the paywall
Murdoch said he was going to charge readers for online news, and here’s how he plans do it.
Presenting The Times and The Sunday Times paywall.
From a News International press release issued on Friday:
UAE vs NewsCorp
The leaders of the United Arab Emirates don’t take too kindly to criticism, according to a report by Zawya Dow Jones:
The Sunday London Times newspaper was removed by authorities from shelves in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday amid intensive reporting of Dubai’s debt problems,
Microsoft and News Corp discuss web alliance
Microsoft has discussed a plan with News Corp to “de-index” the media company’s news websites from Google. The Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft, which owns the rival Bing search engine, has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine.
Rupert gears up for the battle of the e-reader
It doesn’t happen often so when it does, you know something is afoot in the world of News Corp. Rupert Murdoch, who is currently on a swing through North Asia, has been personally visiting top management at a number of electronics makers and other companies in Japan and South Korea.
Bids high for Travel Channel stake
Buyout firms as well as media groups have submitted higher-than-expected bids for a majority stake in US cable channel the Travel Channel. Second-round offers indicate that a sale of the 65% stake that Cox Communications put up for sale in June could value Travel Channel at $800m or more,
News Corp in talks with Saudi firm
News Corp is in talks with Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to take a stake in Rotana Media, marking its first major investment in the Middle East, reports the WSJ. News Corp may buy a 20% interest in Rotana from Prince Alwaleed,
Murdoch to charge for all online content
Rupert Murdoch has vowed to charge for all the online content of his newspapers and TV news channels, going well beyond his plan announced in May to test pay models on one of News Corp’s stronger papers.
Spending drought hits Time Warner
The prolonged global advertising drought hurt Time Warner in the second quarter as steep double-digit declines in online and magazine publishing sales sent the media group’s net profit down 8% to $519m.
James Murdoch plans Star TV shake-up
James Murdoch is planning a sweeping shake-up of News Corporation’s Star Asian TV operations, his biggest move yet to stamp his mark on the most promising growth area in his father’s media empire. The move will involve job cuts in Hong Kong and the rest of Asia,
Lex: Plenty of room at MySpace
Let’s hear it for Owen van Natta. MySpace’s new chief executive is taking the tough decisions that the site’s founders wouldn’t. Plans to cut a third of the struggling social network’s workforce are a late but necessary step.
Murdoch revamps top team
News Corp has moved swiftly to restructure its top management team ahead of the imminent departure of Peter Chernin, with promotions for some of Rupert Murdoch’s key lieutenants. Chernin has been Murdoch’s right-hand man for several years but will step down in June to pursue a film production career.
Murdoch to run Fox as Chernin exits
Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp, is leaving after failing to agree a new contract with Rupert Murdoch, who will step in and take direct control of the Fox studio and broadcast businesses that his right-hand man has run for 12 years.
News Corp posts $6.4bn Q4 loss
News Corp on Thursday night forecast a worse than expected 30% drop in operating income this year and unveiled a $6.4bn quarterly loss. Rupert Murdoch’s media group took an $8.4bn non-cash writedown to reflect the deteriorating outlook for its television channels and Dow Jones,
News Corp to cut newspaper jobs
News Corp is expected to cut jobs at its UK and US newspapers in coming weeks, as a steep decline in print advertising has forced sharp cost reductions. News International, whose papers include The Times and The Sun,
News Corp may face heir ‘deadlock’
News Corporation faces a potential deadlock once Rupert Murdoch’s heirs take over, according to a forthcoming biography of the 77-year-old media tycoon. An agreement giving equal economic rights in the Murdoch family’s stake in News Corp to all six of its chairman’s children – but voting control to the eldest four only – contains no provision for breaking tied votes,
News Corp slashes forecast
Rupert Murdoch has sharply cut forecasts for his media empire, predicting News Corp will suffer double-digit declines in operating income for this fiscal year, rather than the 4-6% growth previously forecast.
Murdoch opens JCDecaux talks
Rupert Murdoch has begun exclusive talks with JCDecaux to exchange his eastern European billboard business for cash and a stake in the French outdoor advertising group, days after Russian authorities raided the division.
News Corp’s TV ad revenues slide
Strong film studio results helped News Corp report a 27% jump in fiscal Q4 earnings, but its TV division suffered the same advertising slowdown now hitting other media companies. The television group, which includes Fox’s broadcast network and its collection of local stations,
Thomson takes top WSJ role
Robert Thomson was on Tuesday night named managing editor of the Wall Street Journal and editor-in-chief of Dow Jones, in a move seen as signalling Rupert Murdoch’s ambition to drive faster changes at the financial newspaper the News Corp chairman bought last year.
Cablevision near deal to buy Newsday
News Corp has dropped out of the running for Newsday, the Long Island tabloid being sold by Tribune Compay, making Cablevision and the Dolan family the most likely candidates to acquire the paper. News Corp originally submitted a $580m bid for the paper,
News Corp sees Q3 earnings triple
News Corp on Wednesday reported that Q3 earnings tripled to $2.7bn on a one-time stock sale but predicted that its Fox Interactive Media group would fall short of its $1bn revenue target this year by about 10% – highlighting the challenges of converting the MySpace social networking site’s vast online audience into advertising sales.
Zuckerman fires up Newsday battle
The battle for Newsday, the Long Island-based tabloid, will heat up this week after Mortimer Zuckerman, owner of the rival Daily News, joined the fray, offering $580m for Newsday on Friday, essentially matching the bid from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Microsoft and News Corp talk on Yahoo
News Corp is in “serious talks” with Microsoft over a joint bid for Yahoo, reports the WSJ, although the NYT says the talks are at a “sensitive stage”. Meanwhile, Yahoo and Time Warner’s AOL are nearing a deal to combine their internet operations,
News Corp and Liberty seal deal
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp announced Wednesday the completion of a roughly $11bn deal that gives Liberty Media control of the DirecTV satellite television business. The transaction, approved by News Corp shareholders last April,
Murdoch muddies the Microsoft/Yahoo battle
Rupert Murdoch has revived discussions over merging News Corp’s MySpace social network with Yahoo, potentially thwarting Microsoft’s planned $41bn takeover. While Mr Murdoch told investors last week that he would not make a bid for Yahoo,
A fine quarter for News Corp
News Corp’s Fox TV network hauled in $250m in advertising revenue on the strength of the most-watched Super Bowl ever – a performance that chief executive Rupert Murdoch called “the biggest day in our company’s history”.
Just a Microhoo? No way! Bulge bracket M&A meets blogging
It’s possibly the biggest takeover story that could have realistically hit the frenetic pixels of TechCrunch.com, pointyheaded news personified: a hostile bid by Microsoft (universally loathed) for Google’s mis-firing rival,
BSkyB forced to slash ITV stake
BSkyB, the UK pay TV operator owned by News Corp, will on Tuesday be ordered by the UK government to more than halve its stake in ITV, the broadcaster. John Hutton, the business secretary, is on Tuesday expected to support a ruling last month by the Competition Commission that BSkyB’s 17.9% shareholding in its terrestrial rival is against the public interest.
Sale sign hoisted over ‘Fortress Wapping’
News International is to put its “Fortress Wapping” headquarters site in London on the market ahead of a decision on the new home for its stable of newspaper titles. Jones Lang LaSalle, the company’s property adviser,