News Corporation (NWS)

Shares / Stock Code

NWS

Stock Exchange / Sharemarket

ax

News Corporation or NewsCorp (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a diversified international media and entertainment company. NewsCorp had total assets of approximately US$69 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$31 billion as of December 31, 2007. News Corporation is a diversified entertainment company with operations in eight industry segments: filmed entertainment; television; cable network programming; direct broadcast satellite television; magazines and inserts; newspapers and information services; book publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and the Pacific Basin.

NewsCorp was listed on the ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) on 4 November, 2004. In November 2004, The News Corporation Limited underwent a reorganisation and redomiciled in the United States. That company's securities ceased trading under the ASX codes NCP and NCPDP on 3 November 2004 and commenced trading the following day as an American company under the new name News Corporation, Inc. Securities based on those American shares still trade on ASX, as Chess Depository Interests under the codes NWS and NWSLV. For any announcement in relation to the former Australian company (The News Corporation Limited) please use the code NCP. For any subsequent announcement by the American-based News Corporation, Inc. please use the code NWS.

News Corporation Limited (NWS) History

It was in 1979 when the News Corporation was promoted by Mr. Rupert Murdoch. His father, Keith Murdoch left him the Adelaide News in 1952. It was how the News Corporation Limited started and expanded overseas as well as in the other areas of the media. As part of the Australasia expansion plan, NWS moved overseas. It was in 1968 when The News of The World, a Sunday newspaper was purchased by the NWS. The Sun newspaper was purchased next and it was in 1976 when the acquisition for the US Newspaper business was acquired by the company.

The company made a considerable expansion in the year 1980 and in 1986, the newspaper section of the NWS was moved to computerised premises at Wapping, London from Fleet Street. A year after, the company ventured into the television business where the company created its 4th major US television network after the launching of the Fox Television. The NWS introduced the Sky Satellite TV in UK in 1989 and it acquired BSB, NWS rival in 1990.

With the acquisition of the Harper Collins in 1990, NWS entered the book publishing business. Harper Collins has offices in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Asia and Europe and has imprints in the 19 countries worldwide. A year after NWS entered the book publishing business; Mr. Murdoch was almost bankrupt after purchasing the US TV Guide magazine. When the purchase occurred, there was a recession and the interest rates were so high that the company almost ran out of funds. Aside from that, the sales were down and the owner was forced to sell almost all of his magazine empire in the US.

Through the funds gathered from the Star TV, NWS expanded its television business in Asia in 1993 however; the government of Chine banned all its satellite dishes. The company shifted to the digital television business in 1998 by offering a wider variety of TV Channels. After this, NWS expanded its television operation in Japan and the Sky PerfecTV was founded. A year after, the 50% of the stake of the Liberty Media in the Fox Sports Net as well as FX was acquired by the NWS. There was also an acquisition made for the Avon Brooks and the William Morrow and Company. These companies were sold by the Hearst Corporation. It was also in 1999 when the interest in VOX was sold by the company. Chris-Craft, UTV, BHC and 21% of the stake of Liberty Media in Gemstar TV Guide International was acquired by the News Corporation Limited in 2000. It was in 2001 when Walt Disney acquired the Fox Family Worldwide. It was a deal worth approximately $5.3 billion. It was in 2002 when the NWS signed an agreement with the Telecom Italia for the acquisition of the Telepiu, an Italian pay television platform.

The plans for the incorporation of the NWS in the US were announced in 2004. This was for the purpose of attracting US investors and for the company to be featured in the benchmark indexes. This led to the reorganisation of the company and also it led the NWS to sell their 58% stake in Queensland Press to the News Corporation in exchange of the shares of the NWS. The plan for reincorporation was accepted by the company's shareholders in 2004 and the completion for it also took place in the same year. It was in this year that NWS was enlisted in the New York Stock Exchange. It was in 2005 when the minor investors in Fox Entertainment were bought by the company for an amount of $5.4 billion.

In 2005, NWS entered into an agreement for the acquisition of the Intermix Media. The Intermix Media exercised its option for the acquisition of the 47% of MySpace.com ina separate transaction and the 30 sites of MySpace.com as well as Intermix Media were expected to become of Fox Interactive Media, a newly formed unit of NWS.
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A joint venture, STATS, was formed between the News Corporation and The Associated Press for the purpose of producing sports content and date in 2005. This was planned to combine the STATS and the MegaSports. Also in the same month, a definitive agreement for the acquisition of the Scout Media was entered by the Fox Interactive Media. Scout Media produces 47 local sports magazines in the US.

In 2005, a definitive agreement for the acquisition of the IGN Entertainment was signed by NWS. Also in the same month, 25% of the shares in the News Out of Home was acquired by News Corporation Limited. After this acquisition, the total shares of NWS in the News Out Of Home became 100%. The acquisition of the Intermix was also completed by the Fox Interactive Media. Intermix Media; the owner of MySpace.com was also bought by NWS. The same company also completed the launching of Mobizzo in the month of February in 2006. In 2006, the Sky Radio Limited was sold for the amount of around $215 million. In May 2006, an acquisition of the Turner South for the amount of $375 million was made by the company. This channel gave NWS the rights for the National Hockey League's Atlanta Thrashers and also the rights to share the Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves and the National Basketball Association (NBA) Atlanta Hawk with one of NWS existing regional sports networks. It was also in the same month when the declaration that the Fox Television Studios will become the exclusive entertainment for the Harper Collins Publishers was done. This led to the development of the content based on the existing library of the company and the new titles for the Harper Collins.

In 2006, STAR, NWS subsidiary sold around 20% of the company’s interest in Phoenix to the China Mobile Group in Hong Kong for around $164 million. In August of 2006, an agreement for the multi-year search technology and services was entered and signed by the NWS Fox Interactive Media and Google. In this agreement, Google would serve as the provider of the exclusive search and keyword advertising sales for the web properties of the Fox Interactive Media which include MySpace.com. In September 2006, MyNetworkTV, a new general entertainment broadcast network was launched by the Twentieth Television. It was also in September 2006 when two weekly newspaper groups in New York City were purchased by the News Corporation. These two weekly newspaper groups publish more than 30 titles of local newspapers in New York City mainly the Courier-Life and the TimesLedger which were regularly published in Brooklyn and Queens. In October 2006, an eight-year agreement was signed by the News Corporation and Nielsen Media Research. In this agreement, Nielsen would be the provider of the audience measurement services foe the 49 television entities of the News Corporation Limited. A 50-50 joint venture was formed between the Fox Interactive Media and the Softbank CORP. This was for the purpose of launching the MySpace KK in November 2006.

A share exchange agreement between the News Corporation and Liberty Media Corporation was signed in December 2006. Included in the terms and conditions of this agreement was that the 16.3% of the economic position of Liberty will be traded with the 38,4% stake of News Corporation in The DIRECTTV Group as well as $550 million of cash and three regional sports network. All these were subjected to a working capital adjustment. A joint venture between News Corporation and VeriSign was signed wherein News Corporation received a controlling interest in Jamba subsidiary in January 2007. In the fiscal year of 2007, Fox International Channels had plans to launch Fox Crime in Japan, Portugal, Spain, and other countries in Europe, NEXT in Italy and FX in India and Japan. The News Corporation and the NBC Universal had made an announcement with the internet leaders like MSN, MySpace, Yahoo and AOL to create an online video site which will be the best in the World Wide Web.

NBC Universal, Comcast Corporation and News Corporation signed a distribution agreement in April 2007. Included in this agreement is the provision that Fancast.com and Comcast.net will be the key distribution sites for the online video venture of News Corporation and NBCU. It was also in April 2007 when MySpace China launched the new online Chinese community beta version. This online community will serve as a site where different people can create their own homepage and showcase themselves through photos, blog posts as well as personal experiences. In May 2007, Dow Jones & Company was offered by the News Corporation to acquire all the outstanding shares of Dow Jones & Corporation for $60 per share either in combination of News Corporation stock and cash or in cash. It was also in the same month that the CNET Networks was added to the company as a strategic content distributor and provider in the Comcast agreement. A month after, plans of selling nine affiliated television stations under FOX network were announced by the NWS.