Lachlan Murdoch, the estranged heir of Rupert Murdoch is in India to consolidate his media interests, reports CNBC-TV18. The former heir apparent of News Corporation and the former blue-eyed boy of Rupert Murdoch, Peter Mukherjea now make a common pair. When Mukerjea resigned from Star TV, it fuelled speculation of a joint venture for the better part of last year. Lachlan Murdoch broke off from...
May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Rupert Murdoch tried today to persuade the Bancroft family to sell him Dow Jones & Co. by offering appeals to their pride. What he didn't offer is more money. ``We admire the Bancroft family and the Dow Jones management,'' Murdoch told analysts on a conference call after News Corp., the third-largest media company, reported quarterly earnings. ``If we didn't have such strong...
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Leading media executives took a combative tone against Internet companies on Tuesday, suggesting that Big Media increasingly considers new content distributors like Google Inc. to be more foe than friend. At a panel discussion on the second day of the 56th annual National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference, top executives said talk of the demise of traditional...
LONDON - Thomson may have done extensive homework before revealing its $18 billion takeover bid for Reuters Group on Tuesday, but even that may not be enough to ensure that a tie-up between the world's second- and third-largest providers of financial data gets past the regulators. Analysts say competition concerns will be the deal's main stumbling block. "A move to a global duopoly in market data...
May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Dow Jones & Co., whose controlling shareholders rebuffed a $5 billion takeover bid from News Corp. last week, said advertising revenue at the Wall Street Journal fell the most in almost two years last month. Ad sales dropped 12 percent and volume fell 13 percent, dragged down by a 35 percent plunge in computer-technology advertising and a drop of 16 percent in financial ads...
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Kraft, Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola are among the marketers that are prepared to stop spending in magazines if they don't get issue-by-issue circulation guarantees. Robin Steinberg, senior VP-director of print investment and activation at MediaVest, insists that magazines should make issue-by-issue circulation guarantees to marketers. Robin Steinberg, senior VP-director of print...
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Facing revenue and circulation declines, the Star Tribune said Monday it would eliminate 145 positions, or about 7 percent of its work force. The cuts will include about 50 positions in the newsroom, the paper said, and a voluntary buyout program has been proposed to the Newspaper Guild, which represents newsroom workers. The paper said about two-thirds of the jobs to be...
Two former top Dow Jones & Co. executives who have long associations with the controlling Bancroft family say they oppose News Corp.'s $5 billion offer to take over the company, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. In a sharply worded statement that questions the motives behind News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch's pursuit of the company, James H. Ottaway Jr., a large shareholder, warned that...
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. sold its shares in Fairfax Media Ltd., six months after buying the stake to thwart any attempt to take over its nearest Australian rival. The sale comes just days after Australian-born Murdoch bid $5 billion for Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal. News Corp. sold its 7.5 percent stake for A5.07 a share, Fairfax said in a statement...
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer interrupted a Hawaiian vacation to call his top Internet ad man, Yusuf Mehdi, on April 16 after Google Inc. announced its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc. Mehdi says Ballmer offered money, personnel, acquisitions or whatever he needed to fight the threat that buying Web- advertising company DoubleClick will advance...
