Tuesday, March 12, 2013

News Corp's publishing arm to start life with £1.7bn cash pot


Friday 8 March 2013

News Corp's new publishing division will get a healthy cash injection when it goes it alone in June, reports the Financial Times and Bloomberg. It will enjoy a $1.8bn (£1.2bn) contribution from Rupert Murdoch's media company, giving it $2.6bn (£1.7bn) in net cash and no debt.
Citing documents filed today with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the FT says the assets for the "New News Corp" will total $18.6bn (£12.5bn).

The new company will have five divisions: news and information services; digital real estate services; HarperCollins book publishing; Fox Sports Australia's cable programming; and a miscellaneous group.
The news and information division will include the British newspaper outfit, News International, plus the US papers - such as the Wall Street Journal - and the Australian press publisher, News Ltd.

In future, the publishing spin-off will be entirely separate from the current News Corp's movie and TV outlets, which will be known as the Fox Group entertainment company.
Murdoch will remain chairman and chief executive of Fox Group and will be chairman of "New News Corp." Its chief executive will be Robert Thomson, the former Times editor and managing editor of the Wall Street Journal.

Sources: FT/Bloomberg

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