News Corporation

News Corporation
Type Public
NASDAQNWS
NASDAQNWSA
ASXNWS
ASXNWSLV
Industry Conglomerate
Founded Adelaide, Australia (1979)
Delaware 2004
became a US Corporation[1][2]
Founder(s) Rupert Murdoch
Headquarters

Australia

Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia
United States New York City, New York, United States
Area served Worldwide
Key people Rupert Murdoch (Chairman & CEO)
Chase Carey (COO)
David DeVoe (CFO)
Lawrence Jacobs (Senior Executive & VP)
James Murdoch (CEO in Europe & Asia)
Products Films, Television, Cable Programming, Satellite Television, Magazines, Newspapers, Books, Sporting Events, Websites
Revenue decrease US$ 30.423 billion (2009)[3]
Operating income decrease US$ -5.650 billion (2009)[3]
Net income decrease US$ -3.378 billion (2009)[3]
Total assets decrease US$ 53.121 billion (2009)[3]
Total equity decrease US$ 23.224 billion (2009)[3]
Employees 64,000 (2008)[4]
Subsidiaries List of acquisitions
Website Newscorp.com
1211 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), where News Corporation is based

News Corporation (NASDAQNWS,NASDAQNWSA,ASXNWS,ASXNWSLV), 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 and Founder 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.

News Corporation's global headquarters is at 1211 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Ave.), in New York City, in the newer 1960s-1970s corridor of the Rockefeller Center complex.

Contents

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.

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.

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 the Foxtel 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]

Development since 2000

In late 2003, News Corp acquired a 34% stake in DirecTV Group, (formerly: Hughes Electronics), from General Motors for Electronics, operator of the largest American satellite TV system, for US$6 billion. DirecTV Group sold in 2008 to Liberty Media's Malone, in exchange to his News shares.

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]

2010 RGA Donation and Controversy

In anticipation of the 2010 elections, News Corp. donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. The move was criticized to be journalistically compromising the already conservative leaning media outlets owned by the corporation. A spokesman responded by saying that “There is a strict wall between business and editorial,”[19] 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." [20]

Shareholders

Corporate governance

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

Office of the chairman

Holdings

Books

Newspapers

Magazines

Music and radio

India

Russia

Sport

Studios

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]

Broadcast

Satellite television

Cable

Cable channels owned (in whole or part) and operated by News Corporation include:

PLATFORMS

Internet

Other assets

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 Times and 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.

See also

References

  1. "News Corp investors agree US move". BBC News. 2004-10-26. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3953407.stm. Retrieved 2010-03-27. 
  2. Fabrikant, Geraldine (2004-04-07). "Market Place; News Corp. Plans to Follow Its Chief to the United States". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/07/business/market-place-news-corp-plans-to-follow-its-chief-to-the-united-states.html. Retrieved 2010-03-27. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Google.com
  4. "Company Profile for News Corporation (NWSA)". http://zenobank.com/index.php?symbol=NWSA&page=quotesearch. Retrieved 2008-09-30. 
  5. "Fortune". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2009/industries/145/index.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20. 
  6. Viacom.com
  7. Siklos, Richard (2009-02-09). "Why Disney wants DreamWorks". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/09/news/companies/disney_dreamworks.fortune/?postversion=2009020914. Retrieved 2010-05-20. 
  8. News Corporation - Annual Report 2007
  9. 9.0 9.1 Revolution on Fleet Street, TIME magazine, 1996-08-21.
  10. Palmer, Rhonda. "Murdoch catches rising Star". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR108977.html?categoryid=18&cs=1. 
  11. Shenon, Philip (1993-08-23). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Star TV Extends Murdoch's Reach". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7DA153EF930A1575BC0A965958260. 
  12. Guardian.co.uk
  13. Rupert Murdoch Laid Bare
  14. "Tax free: Rupert Murdoch's zero status". BBC News. 25 March 1999. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/02/99/e-cyclopedia/302366.stm. Retrieved 25 April 2010. 
  15. Fox Business makes TV debut, Hollywood Reporter, October 16, 2007. Accessed: 10-17-2007.
  16. Fox Business Network blazes new trail, USA Today, 14 October 2007. Accessed: 2007-10-17.
  17. Fox Business: Fluff meets financial, Toronto Globe and Mail, 16 October 2007. Accessed: 2007-10-17.
  18. Rupert Murdoch Speaks His Mind, Business Week, Feb 2007.
  19. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/us/politics/18donate.html?_r=1&ref=us, New York Times, accessdate = 2010-08-23
  20. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/aug/20/news-corporation-fox-news, The Guardian, accessdate = 2010-08-23
  21. News Corp and Liberty Media, USA Today, 2006-12-22.
  22. News Corp Murdoch trust sells shares, The Age, 2007-11-16.
  23. Murdoch's son sees pay doubled ahead of exit, Daily Telegraph, 2005-08-26.
  24. Charlie Rose interview with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, video.google.com
  25. Li, Kenneth (2010-01-22). "Alwaleed backs James Murdoch". Financial Times (Pearson PLC). http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7b0b1924-06f5-11df-b058-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1. Retrieved 2010-01-23. 
  26. Kercheval, Nancy and Danielle Rossingh (2007-12-22). "News Corp. to Sell U.S. TV Stations for $1.1 Billion (Update5)". Bloomberg.com. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3tNrZzvfKiM. Retrieved 2007-12-22. 
  27. "Murdoch's Pebble Beach shindig". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2006/1711577.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-01. 
  28. Brook, Stephen (2006-07-31). "Bono and Blair to join Murdoch on the beach". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jul/28/citynews.broadcasting. Retrieved 2007-12-01. 
  29. Hinsliff, Gaby (2006-07-23). "The PM, the mogul and the secret agenda". The Guardian (London). http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1827023,00.html. Retrieved 2007-12-01. 

External links