Posted on 05/24/2013 1:10:19 PM PDT by Olog-hai
News Corp. said its board of directors has approved plans to split its entertainment and publishing businesses into two separate companies. The company also adopted a shareholder-rights plan designed to prevent a hostile takeover in the volatile trading period after the split is complete.
The New York-based media conglomerate also said Friday that the target date for the split is June 28. The company holding its TV and movie properties will be 21st Century Fox. The new News Corp., a smaller entity, will be focused on newspapers and publishing. Both will be publicly traded, under separate ticker symbols. …
The shareholders-right plan, known as a poison pill, will make it expensive for any investor to buy more than 15 percent of the voting shares in either company for a year after the split. It does so by giving existing shareholders the opportunity to buy new shares issued by the company for about half the price if that 15 percent threshold is reached.
That allows founder Rupert Murdoch, who will be chairman of both companies and CEO of 21st Century Fox, to buy more shares to maintain his control of 40 percent of the voting stock in both companies. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
I imagine George Soros or someone of a similar ilk would like to take control and turn it into another left-wing lamestream media outlet. Hopefully the "poison pill" strategy will prevent that.
newspapers are dying, its a great idea to let them go without bankrupting the other operations
If the government gets the level of control of the press that they seek (especially online), watch for a sudden resurgence of print media.
A few weeks ago, there were articles about the broadcast Fox Channel becoming a pay channel.
IIRC, the original growth of the Fox Channel was pushed because they wanted an NFL contract and the NFL insisted that they have ‘broadcast’ capabilities in each major market.
I considered the ‘going to a pay channel’ threat a bluff — unless they have no further interest in NFL contracts, etc.
Of course, new venue structures and revenue streams are needing to be developed because of the internet. And the NFL is putting several games each year on cable-only channels.
How much more of News Corp does the Saudi prince get?
That influence is certainly obvious in the FoxNews coverage and reporting.
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