SMRs and AMRs

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Father and Son Split on Tactics in Murdoch Family Drama

By JEREMY W. PETERS and JOHN F. BURNS
NYT

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation announced Wednesday that it was withdrawing its $12 billion bid to buy complete control of the satellite giant British Sky Broadcasting, a move intended to calm the torrent of derision directed at the company since journalists at its British newspapers were implicated in a widespread phone-hacking scheme.

Whether or not the announcement will give the company any respite from the growing indignation and official investigations, it seems to have already altered not only the dynamics within one of the world’s most powerful and profitable media companies but also, possibly, the future of the newspaper business within the News Corporation.

The decision to withdraw the bid for BSkyB, as the satellite broadcaster is known, was made as a contentious family drama played out in recent days. James Murdoch, a leading contender to replace his father as chairman and the driving force behind the News Corporation’s bid to take over BSkyB, argued that the company should press for regulatory approval of the deal, said three people with knowledge of the discussions who declined to be identified because they were revealing confidential company deliberations.

But Rupert Murdoch and the News Corporation’s chief operating officer, Chase Carey, overruled the younger Mr. Murdoch, consulting him only after the decision was all but final.

(More here.)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home