Peter Chernin, the long-time president and COO of News Corp, is leaving the company after protracted negotiations over his contract could not be resolved. Chernin’s salary was $28.8 million in the last fiscal year, which was $1.3 million more than even Rupert Murdoch’s take-home pay. Chernin helped Murdoch build and oversee his vast media empire over the past 20 years, and his departure no… → Read More
Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp subsidiary that controls most of its online assets, has signed a 12 year lease agreement for a new facility in Playa Vista. All FIM companies in Southern California will move to the new facility starting in June of 2009. For those wondering about FIM and MySpace’s future growth, this move should settle speculation. The site will house over 300,000 square… → Read More
During yesterday’s News Corp. earnings call, Rupert Murdoch and COO Peter Chernin talked a little bit about the weakness at MySpace. They expect Fox Interactive Media (which includes MySpace, Photobucket, IGN, and other properties) to miss its $1 billion revenue goal by the end of News Corp.’s fiscal year next quarter. Instead, they expect FIM to reach $900 million for the fiscal year. → Read More
A Yahoo board meeting Friday authorized talks with both Microsoft and Time Warner (AOL) next week. According to a New York Times report quoting sources, Yahoo’s board met to evaluate Microsoft’s takeover bid and other alternatives but did not make a formal decision on which option to pursue. The fence sitting from Yahoo provides some solace to Microsoft after a week where an AOL-Yahoo deal… → Read More
What a day. I can’t say neither side is throwing punches any longer in the epic fight over what’s left of Yahoo. Microsoft and Yahoo are done, for the most part, with sternly worded letters. Yesterday Yahoo made two announcements/leaks. First, that they were very close to agreeing to terms that would combine Yahoo and AOL as an alternative to the Microsoft deal. And second, that they… → Read More
Things are moving fast in the Yahoo-Microsoft drama. All the different forces are aligning for an endgame. The latest twist: The WSJ is reporting that Yahoo is close to signing a deal to combine with AOL. This at the same time that Yahoo is doing a limited test to place Google ads in its search results. Meanwhile, News Corp, which Yahoo once hoped would be its white knight, is said to be turning… → Read More
News Corp is said to be in talks with Microsoft about joining its bid for Yahoo, according to sources quoted by the New York Times. News Corp entering the mix may allow Microsoft to raise its bid, putting even more pressure on Yahoo to accept it. It would also remove News Corp as a possible alternate bidder for Yahoo. A combined Microsoft/ News Corp/ Yahoo would marry Fox Interactive Media and… → Read More
Amidst all the excitement over the MySpace Music announcement today is another story about the fate of parent company Fox Interactive Media. FIM, the division of News Corp. that controls MySpace, IGN, Scout Media, Photobucket, Fox Sports, AmericanIdol.com and other properties, is in trouble. The company, under President Peter Levinsohn, will miss their revenue target of $1 billion for the current… → Read More
When it comes to market share gains in advertising dollars, Google outstripped every other media company in 2007, whether you look at the Web, TV, print, or radio. Earlier this morning, Henry Blodget compared the advertising revenues of 17 major media businesses (including News Corp, Time Warner Cable, Viacom, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL,, the New York Times, and CBS Radio). He left out Disney… → Read More
Rupert Murdoch is reported to have said that News Corp won’t fight Microsoft for Yahoo. Talking to investors at the annual Bear Stearns Media Conference, Murchdoch said that “We’re not going to get into a fight with Microsoft, which has a lot more money than us.” Murdoch also gave support to Google as FIM’s ad provider: “We’re very happy to be in the Google… → Read More
News Corp. has essentially planted four or five deal guys at Yahoo HQ, working directly with Yahoo business development to try to find a deal to combine MySpace and Yahoo that both sides can swallow. The News Corp. team is led by Jack Kennedy, Fox Interactive Media’s EVP Strategy and Corporate Development, says a source with knowledge of the discussions. According to another source, the team… → Read More
At the start of the Microsoft/Yahoo saga we reported that News Corp. was scrambling to put together a bid to compete with Microsoft, but backed down because they were unable to find outside funding to make the deal lucrative enough (the sorry state of the debt markets contributed to the problem). Yesterday Silicon Alley Insider reported that talks between the two were continuing. We’ve… → Read More
In case you missed the news, internet cables serving the Middle East have had a rough week, with anywhere up to five major cables being cut over the last week. CrunchGear has been following the whole story, but we’ve not covered it until now because internet cables being cut isn’t as an irregular occurrence as you might think. Many of the companies behind these cables are essentially… → Read More
An unconfirmed rumor has surfaced that either Google or MySpace is about to announce a big $1 billion to $1.5 billion acquisition in the social space. After checking around with multiple industry sources, we’ve concluded that if the rumor is true the most likely candidate is Bebo, which we are told is raising capital and simultaneously shopping itself around again. We put the chances of this… → Read More
The rumors keep on rolling around the surprise semi-hostile Microsoft bid for Yahoo this morning. Sillicon Alley Insider says they’ve heard that a couple of hedge funds were already preparing their own bids for Yahoo, and were (or perhaps still are) days away from making their move. According to our source, other big private equity funds were busy today, too. Taking calls from News Corp. → Read More
Ever since the rear-guard at the Wall Street Journal won the battle to keep its news pages behind its subscription wall (although, its opinion pages are now free), they have been cracking down especially hard on anyone trying to breach that wall—even if those people happen to be paying subscribers. In what appears to be an attempt to discourage freeloaders, the WSJ.com is locking out anyone from… → Read More
News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch has said that the Wall Street Journal online will retain a paid subscription model, despite months of speculation that the site would go completely free. Although the full details of the plan are not clear, Murdoch said that much more of the site would be offered for free, however “the really special things will still be a subscription service, and, sorry to… → Read More
Today’s agreement between MySpace and nearly all the states attorneys general to bulk up protections against sexual predators will no doubt have spillover effects on other social networks as well. No social network can afford to look like it is lagging in this area and will do whatever it can to be at par with emerging industry norms in this area. In fact, not long after I originally posted… → Read More
In a deal announced today with 49 state attorneys general and Washington D.C., MySpace has put into place new measures to protect minors from sexual predators. (Texas is the lone holdout). The site, owned by News Corp., has agreed to independent monitoring and to work on age-verification technologies. It also agreed to, according to the WSJ: • Allow parents to submit a child’s email… → Read More
Apple is said to have signed a deal with 20th Century Fox that will see video rentals on iTunes. According to FT.com the deal will be officially announced at MacWorld on January 14. The same report also says that Apple is in talks with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount and Warner Bros along similar lines. Speculation of Apple offering video rentals via iTunes has been around for a long time… → Read More
News Corp has acquired New York based religious community site Beliefnet, according to a report at FishbowlNY. Beliefnet was founded in 1999 and provides a service that offers commentary and community discussion on various religious beliefs. The company has a checkered history, having declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2002, then restructuring and emerging from bankruptcy in October the same… → Read More
Fox Interactive Media (FIM), the online arm of News Corp has plans to become a full service online advertising agency that provides advertising to non-News Corp sites. FIM President Peter Levinsohn told the audience at the Reuters Media Summit today that the advertising network is already in discussion with other News Corp sites for ad sales and that an expansion outside News Corp could come as… → Read More
NBC will start offering its top television shows as ad-supported downloads this fall (autumn) from the NBC Direct website. The announcement is a major setback for the NBC/ News Corp joint venture Hulu, which was originally set up to offer this very content. The announcement also follows on from NBC’s decision to discontinue offering its TV shows via iTunes by the end of the year. NewTeeVee… → Read More
News Corp head Rupert Murdoch has said that he was “leaning toward” making the online Wall Street Journal free, but had not yet made a formal decision. The news comes after the New York Times dumped their pay-for-view service Monday. The Wall Street Journal currently charges $99 per year for full access to all content at wsj.com Murdoch rejected criticism that a free wsj.com would hurt… → Read More
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