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Murdoch tries to cap career with Time Warner mega-bid

Unknown-3You can’t keep a Dirty Digger down (pace Private Eye) and now octogenarian media mogul Rupert Murdoch (left) is trying to buy film rival Time Warner for his 21st Century Fox empire for $80bn, a 25 per cent premium to Time Warner’s current stock market value.

TW has rebuffed the bid, saying its own strategy works better (which investors might question, look at the ridiculous acquisition of AOL) but a 25 per cent premium was never likely to win the game. It’s also a share deal and the Murdoch family’s superior voting shares in Fox would mean a combined company would not be fully answerable to shareholders.

But Murdoch has now parked his tanks on TW’s lawn and the odds are that he, or someone else, will buy it.

Now some people might say that, with the rise of Netflix and others, TW should take the money. They could be redundant in a few years’ time. Murdoch isn’t good at ‘new media’ either, look at MySpace.

But media moguls/managers don’t think that way. They think they can stem the incoming tide.

Murdoch, still bruised from the phone hacking scandal in the UK which led to the closure of the News of the World (his first big media title) clearly wants a big deal to close his career.

Will it affect adverts if it goes through? Not really, it’s a deal straight out of Jurassic Park.

One Comment

  1. “Close his career.” You must be joking… The “Wizened of Oz” is NEVER going away. He’s got that picture in the attic, remember. The best bit is that he is now being described as America’s most eligible bachelor. Horse tranquilizers anyone?
    Cheers/George

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