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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Rupert Murdoch Chairman, CEO, News Corp

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News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NASDAQ: NWSA, ASX: NWS,ASX: NWSLV), often abbreviated to News Corp., is the world's third-largest media conglomerate (behind The Walt Disney Company and the Time Warner Company) as of 2008, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009.[5][6][7][8] The company's Chairman & Chief Executive Officer is Rupert Murdoch.
News Corporation is a publicly-traded company listed on the NASDAQ, with secondary listings on the Australian Securities Exchange. Formerly incorporated in South Australia, the company was re-incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law after a majority of shareholders approved the move on November 12, 2004. At present, News Corporation is headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Ave.), in New York City, in the newer 1960s-1970s corridor of the Rockefeller Center complex.

History

News Corp was created in 1979 by Rupert Murdoch as a holding company for News Limited. News Limited was created by Murdoch from the assets he inherited in 1952 following the death of his father, Sir Keith Murdoch, and subsequent expansion. The main asset left to him was ownership of the Adelaide afternoon tabloid, The News. News Limited operates today as News Corporation's Australian brand, operating out of Surry Hills, in Sydney.

[edit]Moving into the United States

News Ltd. made its first acquisition in the United States in 1973, when it purchased the San Antonio Express-News. Soon afterwards it founded the National Star, a supermarket tabloid, and in 1976 it purchased the New York Post.
In 1981 News Corp bought half of the movie studio 20th Century Fox, buying the other half in 1984. In 1985 News Corp announced it was buying the Metromedia group of stations, setting the stage for the launch of a fourth U.S. broadcast network. On September 4, 1985, Murdoch became a naturalized citizen to satisfy the legal requirement that only United States citizens could own American television stations. In 1986, the Metromedia deal closed, and the Fox Broadcasting Company was launched. This network, known on-screen as "Fox", can now be picked up in over 96% of U.S. households.

[edit]Expansion and Consolidation

In 1986 and 1987, News Corp (through subsidiary News International) moved to adjust the production process of its British newspapers, over which the printing unions had long maintained a highly restrictive grip.[9] A number of senior Australian media moguls were brought into Murdoch's powerhouse, including John Dux, who was managing director of the South China Morning Post. This led to a confrontation with the printing unions NGA and SOGAT. The move of News International's London operation to Wapping in the East End resulted in nightly battles outside the new plant. Delivery vans and depots were frequently and violently attacked.[9] Ultimately the unions capitulated.
By 1992, News Corp had amassed huge debts, which forced it to sell many of the American magazine interests it had acquired in the mid-1980s to K-III, as well spinning off long held Australian magazines interests as Pacific Magazines. Much of this debt came from its stake in the Sky Television satellite network in the UK, which incurred massive losses in its early years of operation, which (like many of its business interests) was heavily subsidised with profits from its other holdings until it was able to force rival satellite operator BSB to accept a merger on its terms in 1990. (The merged company, BSkyB has dominated the British pay-TV market since.)
In 1993 News Corp acquired a 63.6% stake of the Hong Kong-based STAR TV satellite network for over $500 million, followed by the purchase of the remaining 36.4% in July 1995.[10][11] Murdoch declared that:[12]
"(Telecommunications) have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere ... satellite broadcasting makes it possible for information-hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state-controlled television channels."
In 1995, the Fox network became the object of scrutiny from the FCC when it was alleged that its Australian base made Murdoch's ownership of Fox illegal. The FCC, however, ruled in Murdoch's favor, stating that his ownership of Fox was in the public's best interests. It was also noted that the stations themselves were owned by a separate company whose chief shareholder was U.S. citizen Murdoch, although nearly all of the stations' equity was controlled by News Corp. In the same year News Corp announced a deal with MCI Communications to develop a major news website as well as funding a conservative news magazine, The Weekly Standard. In the same year, News Corp launched theFoxtel pay television network in Australia in a partnership with Telstra and Publishing and Broadcasting Limited.
In 1996, Fox established the Fox News Channel, a 24-hour cable news station to compete against Ted Turner's rival channel CNN.
In 1999, News Corp significantly expanded its music holdings in Australia by acquiring the controlling share in a leading Australian based label, Michael Gudinski's Mushroom Records; merging it with already held Festival Records to create Festival Mushroom Records (FMR). Both Festival and FMR were managed by Rupert Murdoch's son James Murdoch for several years.
Also in 1999, The Economist reported that News Corps paid comparatively lower taxes and Newscorp Investments specifically had made £11.4 billion ($20.1 billion) in profits over the previous 11 years but had not paid net corporation tax. It also reported that after an examination of the available accounts, Newscorp could normally have been expected to pay corporate tax of approximately $350 million. The article explained that in practice the corporation's complex structure, international scope and use of offshore tax havens allowed News Corporation to pay minimal taxes.[13][14]

[edit]Development since 2000

In late 2003, News Corp acquired a 34% stake in DirecTV Group (formerly Hughes Electronics), operator of the largest American satellite TV system, from General Motors for US$6 billion. DirecTV Group was sold to Liberty Media in 2008 in exchange for its holding in News International.
In 2007 News Corporation reached an agreement to purchase Dow Jones, publishers of the Wall Street Journal, for an estimated $5.6 billion. On October 15, 2007 the corporation spun off a business news channel from Fox News - Fox Business Network.[15] The channel's lawyers were "reviewing all of the fine details of the contract" between Dow Jones and CNBC, said Alexis Glick, Fox Business Network's vice president of business news and the channel's morning anchor. But, she added, "we will actively use" the other Dow Jones properties.[16]"...this new channel is a bit tedious. Somehow, business is more interesting when treated in a business-like way", commented Rob Carrick in 16 October's Toronto Globe and Mail.[17] On 8 February 2007, Murdoch promised guests at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit that, "a Fox channel would be more business-friendly than CNBC. That channel leap[s] on every scandal, or what they think is a scandal", he said.[18]
In 2009, News Corp established NewsCore, a global wire service set up to provide news stories to all of News Corp's journalistic outlets.[19]
In 2010 due to the Fijian government's requirement that the country's media outlet must be 90% owned by Fiji nationals, News Corporation sold 90% of their stake in their Fijian newspapers (Fiji Times, Nai Lalakai and Shanti Dut) to Motibhai Group of Companies. [20]

[edit]Shareholders

  • In August 2005 the Murdoch family owned only about 29% of the company. However, nearly all of these shares were voting shares, and Rupert Murdoch retained effective control of the company. Nonetheless, John Malone of Liberty Media had built up a large stake, with about half of the shares being voting shares. Therefore, in November 2006, News Corporation announced its intention to transfer its 38.5 per cent managing interest in DirecTV Group to John Malone's Liberty Media; in return it bought back Liberty's 16.3% shares in News Corp., giving Murdoch tighter control of the latter firm.[21] Murdoch sold 17.5 million class A shares in December 2007.[22]
  • Years after when Elektra Records was absorbed in 2004, News Corporation owned half of the re-issues from the record label company.

[edit]Corporate governance

The company's Board of Directors consists of 17 individuals:

[edit]Office of the chairman

[edit]Holdings

See also: List of assets owned by News Corporation

[edit]Books

[edit]Newspapers

[edit]Magazines

  • News America Marketing (Smartsource) (weekly Sunday newspaper coupon insert/website)
  • Australian
    • Alpha Magazine
    • Australian Country Style
    • Australian Golf Digest
    • Australian Good Taste
    • Big League
    • BCME
    • Delicious
    • Donna Hay
    • Fast Fours
    • GQ (Australia)
    • Gardening Australia
    • InsideOut (Aust)
    • Lifestyle Pools
    • Live to Ride
    • Notebook
    • Overlander 4WD
    • Modern Boating
    • Modern Fishing
    • Parents
    • Pure Health
    • Super Food Ideas
    • Truck Australia
    • Truckin' Life
    • twowheels
    • twowheels scooter
    • Vogue (Australia)
    • Vogue Entertaining & Travel
    • Vogue Living
  • InsideOut (UK Based Magazine)

[edit]Music and radio

[edit]India

  • Radio City (20%, held through STAR TV) - commercial FM network with stations in 20 cities.

[edit]Russia

  • Nashe (50%)
  • Best FM (50%)

[edit]Sport

[edit]Studios

[edit]TV

News Corp agreed to sell eight of its television stations to Oak Hill Capital Partners for approximately $1.1 billion as of 22 December 2007. The stations are US Fox affiliates.[26]

[edit]Broadcast

  • Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox), a US broadcast television network
  • My Network TV, a US broadcast television network
  • Fox Television Stations Group, a group of owned and operated Fox television stations
  • Saeta TV Channel 10, channel of Uruguay
  • ITV plc (17.5%), a British broadcast television network and the UK's largest advertising revenue based broadcaster via BSkyB, although a recent legal decision will require this stake to be cut.
  • News Corp Europe
    • bTV, a broadcast television network in Bulgaria. They sold this to CME in February 2010.
    • B1 TV (12,5%), a broadcast television network in Romania, in partnership with Ismar International NVkkkk
    • Fox Televizija, a broadcast television network in Serbia (49%). They sold this to Antenna Group in January 2010
    • Fox Turkey, a Turkish terrestrial channel (56,5%) (formerly TGRT)
    • Imedi Media Holding (100%), a Georgian radio and TV broadcaster.
      • Imedi Television
      • Radio Imedi
    • Israel 10 (9%), a terrestrial channel in Israel.
    • LNT (100%), a terrestrial channel in Latvia
    • TV5 Riga (100%), a terrestrial channel in Latvia
    • Cielo (100%), a free channel in Italy

[edit]Satellite television

[edit]Cable

Cable channels owned (in whole or part) and operated by News Corporation include:
PLATFORMS
  • India
    • Hathway Cable & Datacom (22.2%), India's 2nd largest cable network through 7 cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai & Pune
  • Taiwan
    • Total TV (20%), Pay TV platform with JV partner KOO's Group majority owner (80%). News Corp also has a 20% interest in the KOO's Group directly

[edit]Internet

  • Fox Interactive Media
    • Foxsports.com - website with sports news, scores, statistics, video and fantasy sports
    • MySpace - Social networking website, general interest website acquired through purchase from Intermix Media
    • MySpace TV, a video site which will host amateur videos, contents from net and studios that competes with Google's YouTube
    • Beliefnet - Largest online faith and spirituality network.
    • Hulu (27%) - online video streaming site in partnership with NBC Universal and The Walt Disney Company.
    • Flektor - provides Web-based tools for photo and video editing and mashups.
    • IGN Entertainment - Internet entertainment portal (Includes the sites IGN, GameSpy, TeamXbox, and Askmen.com)
    • Giga.de
    • Slingshot Labs - web development incubator (Includes the sites DailyFill).
    • Strategic Data Corp - interactive advertising company which develops technology to deliver targeted internet advertising.
    • Scout.com
    • WhatIfSports.com - sports simulation and prediction website. Also provides fantasy-style sports games to play.
  • Indya.com - 'India's no. 1 Entertainment Portal'
  • ROO Group Inc (5% increasing to 10% with performance targets)
  • News Digital Media
  • REA Group (60.7%)
    • Realestate.com.au
    • Casa.it (69.4%), Sky Italia also holds a 30.6% share
    • atHome group, operator of leading realestate websites in Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Germany.
      • Altowin (51%),provider of office management tools for realestate agents in Belgium.
    • Propertyfinder.com (50%), News International holds the remaining 50%
      • Sherlock Publications, owner of hotproperty.co.uk portal and magazine titles 'Hot Property', 'Renting' and 'Overseas'
      • ukpropertyshop.co.uk, most comprehensive UK estate agent directory.
    • PropertyLook, property websites in Australia and New Zealand.
    • HomeSite.com.au, home renovation and improvement website.
    • Square Foot Limited, Hong Kong's largest English Language property magazine and website
      • Primedia - Holding co. of Inside DB, a Hong Kong lifestyle magazine.
  • TadpoleNet Media (10%) Hosts of ArmySailor.com
  • New Zealand

[edit]Other assets

  • NDS - Conditional access technology and personal digital video recorders (PVRs) (49%)
    • Jungo
    • Timothy Coville
    • ITE, publisher of Playstation and Mobile games, and interactive television
    • Orbis Technology - OpenBet, supplier of online gambling software
  • Broadsystem Ltd (UK) - Telephony provider for media companies, bought in 1991
  • Broadsystem Australia (Australia)
  • Broadsystem Ventures (UK) - provider of cheap-rate telephone calls, particularly for customers of Sky Television. Bought outright in 1999.
  • Jamba! - Mobile Entertainment/Mobile Handsets Personalisation/Games.
  • News Outdoor Group - Largest outdoor advertising company in Eastern Europe with over 70,000 ads including billboards and bus shelters, operating in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Israel, Poland, Romania, Russia (96 cities), Turkey & Ukraine.
    • Maximedia Israel (67%)
    • Mosgorreklama (50%) - Russia sign and marketing material manufacturer
    • Kamera Acikhava Reklamclik (?) - leading outdoor advertising company in Turkey
  • Australian Associated Press (45%) - real time news service.
  • Stats Inc (50%) - worlds leading provider of sporting information and statistical analysis (a JV with Associated Press)
  • Fox Sports Grill (50%) - Upscale sports bar and restaurant with 7 locations - Scottsdale, Arizona; Irvine, California; Seattle, Washington;Plano, Texas; Houston, Texas; San Diego, California; and Atlanta, Georgia.
  • Fox Sports Skybox (70%) - Sports fan's Bar & Grill at Staples Center and 6 airport restaurants.
  • News America Marketing (US) - (100%) - nation’s leading marketing services company, products include a portfolio of in-store, home-delivered and online media under the SmartSource brand.
  • Rotana (9%) - Largest Arab entertainment company owned by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal

[edit]Annual conference

News Corporation organises an annual management conference, discussing media issues related to geopolitics. Attendees include News Corporation executives, senior journalists, Politicians and Celebrities. Previous events were in Cancun, Mexico, and the Hayman Island off the coast of Australia. The events are private and secretive, there are no records available for the agenda or talks given at the conferences, and no uninvited journalists are permitted access.[27]
The 2006 event in Pebble Beach, California was led by Rupert Murdoch. According to a copy of the agenda leaked to the Los Angeles Timesand other media accounts,[28] issues discussed related from Europe to broadcasting and new media, terrorism to the national policy.[29] The event included speeches from Rupert Murdoch, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bono, Al Gore, Senator John McCain and Bill Clinton while Israel's President, Shimon Peres, will appear on a panel named Islam and the West. The Other notable attendees include Newt Gingrich and Nicole Kidman.

[edit]Political Donations

[edit]Republican Governors Association

In anticipation of the 2010 elections, News Corp. donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association in June 2010. The move was criticized by Democrats who said this was evidence of News Corp's media outlets conservative leanings. A spokesman responded by saying that “There is a strict wall between business and editorial,”[30] The Democratic Governors Association criticized the donation, and demanded more transparency in the reporting by News Corp companies. DGA head Nathan Daschle wrote to the chairman of News Corp company Fox News, Roger Ailes: "In the interest of some fairness and balance, I request that you add a formal disclaimer to your coverage any time any of your programs covers governors or gubernatorial races between now and election day." [31]

[edit]United States Chamber of Commerce



In the summer of 2010, News Corp. donated $1 million to the United States Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber aggressively supported the Republican effort to retake Congress in 2010.[32] This donation and an earlier $1 million contribution that News Corp. made to the Republican Governor's Association led media critics to question whether the company had crossed an ethical line for a media company

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