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from MediaFile:
Rupert Murdoch sells A shares, but still in control
Rupert Murdoch (Photo: Reuters)
News Corp Chief Executive and Chairman Rupert Murdoch sold off the bulk of his common shareholding according to a regulatory filing but, have no fear the 80 year-old mogul is still very much in charge both in terms of management and financial control.
According to the filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, from Nov 16 to Nov 17 Murdoch sold a total of 3.6 million News Corp A shares for between $16.76 and and $17.07 each for a total value of some $62 million. This means Murdoch''s A shares holding went down to just 381,000 from around 4 million. The elder Murdoch had made the disposals for "financial planning" reasons, according to a source. Back in February Murdoch had bought 2.8 million A shares for between $17.19 to $17.53.
News Corp shares got battered through the summer dropping as much as 25 percent as the parent of Fox, Wall Street Journal and Twentieth Century Fox reeled from an escalating phone hacking scandal at its UK newspaper arm. Murdoch did undertake some relatively minor buying and selling of A shares over the summer.
Despite the sell-off Murdoch remains fully in control of News Corp through his family's 40 percent stake in the B shares which have voting rights and control the company (A shares do not have voting rights).
from MediaFile:
Murdoch backs progressive U.S. immigration policy
News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch on Thursday said the United States should work harder at making itself a more attractive country for people to emigrate to, as an important route back to enabling economic growth.
Murdoch, 80, who was born in Melbourne, Australia, became a naturalized a U.S. citizen in 1985.
"We have in our DNA the most entrepreneurship," said Murdoch speaking at a conference on immigration sponsored by the Partnership for New York City and Partnership for a New American Economy. "It's no accident that people over all over Europe want to come here…and from China. This is a great country."
from Breakingviews:
Rupert Murdoch’s sham governance on full display
By Jeffrey Goldfarb
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Rupert Murdoch still gets a kick out of the “fair and balanced” slogan used by his Fox News channel. He had a good laugh about it only last week at News Corp’s annual shareholder meeting. The results of a vote conducted at that gathering, released Monday, show that everyone’s now equally in on the joke about the company’s shameful corporate governance as they are the conservative bias of his TV news operation.
from Jack Shafer:
Intrigue in the house of Murdoch
New York Times reporter Jeremy W. Peters invests 2,400 words today in a Page One story delineating the "rift" between News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and his son and heir apparent, News Corp. Chief Operating Officer James Murdoch.
If News Corp. were a normal company and Rupert Murdoch a normal father, readers might glean from this report that a real power struggle is going on for the future of the company. But News Corp. is not your normal company, Rupert is not your normal dad, and there really is no struggle going on for the future of the company, only a replay of the previous "rifts" that have opened between Rupert Murdoch and his two other children by his second wife Anna—Elisabeth and Lachlan. You see, Rupert sets his adult children up to smack them down.
from MediaFile:
News International loses top PR exec
News Corp exec James Murdoch
If we were at Rupert Murdoch's daily UK tabloid The Sun we'd probably have a headline today that reads: Will the last person to leave News International please turn off the lights?
Oh wait, The Sun already did that -- but with Britain as its subject.
But we can't help ourselves as News International executives drop like flies following the terrible phone voicemail hacking scandal which has rocked its parent company News Corp right to its core. Nearly 20 executives or journalists have either resigned, been fired or arrested since the hacking scandal escalated.
from Jack Shafer:
Cop-out in London
By Jack Shafer
The views expressed are his own.
What were the London police thinking when they invoked the Official Secrets Act last week to compel Guardian reporters Amelia Hill and Nick Davies to disclose the confidential source for their July 4 Milly Dowler phone-hacking story? Did they think the Guardian would roll over when they arrived in court on Friday to contest the order? That Hill and Davies would submit? That free-speech advocates, members of Parliament, and journalists around the world would pay no mind to the prosecutorial over-reach?
Whatever the Metropolitan Police thought, they've rethought it today, announcing that they're dropping for the time-being their request for a court order that the Guardian give up its sources.
from MediaFile:
UPDATED: News Corp’s new independent director Breyer not so, says investor
Rupert and Wendi Murdoch
Updated with official News Corp response below.
We don't know what quite to make of this but CtW Investment Group, a union-affiliated shareholder lobbyist, is raising a stink about News Corp's new independent director appointment, Accel Partners' Jim Breyer.
CtW, which claims its affiliations represent pension funds of some 5.5 million Americans or some $200 billion in assets, says Breyer, a venture capitalist best known as an early investor in Facebook, isn't as independent as the board claims.
from Breakingviews:
James Murdoch stuck in limbo
By Chris Hughes
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The challenge to James Murdoch's credibility remains serious.
Two former senior staff have repeated assertions that News Corporation's European boss was made aware, in 2008, of evidence that phone hacking at his UK newspapers involved more than just a single rogue reporter. Murdoch has strongly rejected that claim. The truth of the matter remains unclear.
from Anthony De Rosa:
Kevin Mitnick shows how to hack like a former News of the World journalist
World renowned hacker Kevin Mitnick hacks my voicemail to demonstrate how phone hacking may have been performed by the News of the World.
from Anthony De Rosa:
Kevin Mitnick on being the world’s most infamous hacker
I had a chance to meet and interview Kevin Mitnick, who at one time was the most wanted hacker in the world. Today he's one of the most sought after security experts, helping others to understand how hackers break into computer networks.
