News Corp wants to take over Australian Consolidated Media
News Corp, controlled by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, plans to acquire Consolidated Media, Australia's largest media group. Consolidated Media is a holding company with interests in the television and magazine industries.
The offer amounts to 1.94 billion Australian dollars (1.9 billion Swiss francs). This was announced by News Corp on Thursday night. That is 3.45 Australian dollars per share. Murdoch has the support of major shareholder James Packer, who holds half of the shares. Billionaire Kerry Stokes, however, who owns a quarter of Consolidated Media, does not want to support the offer. He had previously submitted an offer for the media company himself.
Consolidated Media owns a 33 percent stake in Australia's largest magazine publisher Sky News Australia and 25 percent of the pay-TV network Foxtel. Consolidated Media also holds a 50 percent stake in the pay-TV channels Fox Sports, FoxSportsNews, How To Channel and Fuel TV and a 26 percent stake in Seek, a provider of online job advertisements. (sda)
