Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Gasta Tech: Murdoch Pontificates

Murdoch Pontificates
If it’s Tuesday—or any day of the week lately for that matter—it must be time for Rupert Murdoch to hit the tube. Today’s conduit: his own Fox Business Network. The News Corp chairman and CEO hit some of the usual subjects, but with a few variations. Some excerpts here, video embedded below:
—On search deals: Asked if News Corp (NYSE: NWS). is moving towards an exclusive deal with Bing, Murdoch replied: “I don’t know if they can afford to do that. If they were to pay everybody for everything they took, from every newspaper in the world and every magazine they wouldn’t have any profits left.”
—On NBC Universal: Murdoch found the possibility of partnering with GE interesting but said: “I was late into the scene but even so I don’t regret it. I would have had to sell off NBC, which would have been difficult, and MSNBC, which would not have been difficult. A big question was what was the value of the other things.” He doesn’t expect Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) to have to sell off assets. Conditions are another matter. “For instance, when we bought DirecTV, we were a supplier of cable channels and a distributor so we had to sign all sorts of undertakings that we would treat everybody equally. I’m sure they’ll have to do the same thing.”
—On M&A: Murdoch said he doesn’t see another media deal out there that he would like to do. (News Corp. recently ceded the Travel Channel to Scripps.)

No comments: