News Corp

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This article is about the current company established in 2013. For its predecessor company, see News Corporation.
News Corporation
News Corp
Public
Traded as Class A NASDAQ: NWSA
Class B NASDAQ: NWS
S&P 500 Components (NWSA and NWS)
Industry Publishing
Predecessor News Corporation (1979–2013)
Founded New York City, United States (June 28, 2013 (2013-06-28))
Founder Rupert Murdoch
Headquarters 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, United States
Key people
 Rupert Murdoch
(Executive Chairman)
Lachlan Murdoch
(Co-Chairman)
Robert Thomson
(CEO)
Paul Cheesbrough
(CTO)
Products Newspapers
Revenue Increase US$ 8.633 billion (2015)[1]
Total assets Decrease US$ 15.093 billion (2015)[1]
Subsidiaries List of subsidiaries
Website www.newscorp.com

News Corporation (officially referred to as New News Corp; trading as News Corp) is an American multinational mass media company, formed as a spin-off of the former News Corporation (as founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1979) focusing on newspapers and publishing.[2] It is one of two companies which succeeded the former News Corporation, alongside 21st Century Fox—which consists of the old News Corporation's broadcasting and media properties, such as Fox Entertainment Group. The spin out was structured so that 21st Century Fox would be the legal successor and continuation of the old News Corporation, with the new News Corp being an entirely new company formed by a stock split.

History[edit]

Formation[edit]

On June 28, 2012, Rupert Murdoch announced that News Corporation's publishing operations would be spun off to form a new, publicly traded company.[3][4] Murdoch stated that performing this split would "unlock the true value of both companies and their distinct assets, enabling investors to benefit from the separate strategic opportunities resulting from more focused management of each division." The move also came in the wake of a series of scandals that had damaged the reputation of multiple News Corporation-owned properties.[3][5] Robert James Thomson, editor of The Wall Street Journal, was announced as the initial chief operating officer for the company; while Murdoch would not serve as CEO, he remained a chairman and a shareholder of the new News Corp.[3][6] Thomson promised that the new company would "cultivate a start-up sensibility even though we already work for the world’s most established and prestigious diversified media and information services company", and would emphasize building new business models around its properties and content.[7] The logo of the new News Corporation was unveiled at an investor presentation on May 28, 2013; the handwritten logo uses script based on Murdoch's own handwriting.[7]

News Corp's board approved the split on May 24, 2013, while shareholders approved the split on June 11;[8][5][9] Preliminary trading on the Australian Securities Exchange of the new News Corp's class B stock began on June 19, 2013 at around $15 per share; a value slightly lower than expected by some analysts. The shares fell in price by 3% to $14.55 per share, valuing the new company at around $7.9 billion US.[10][11] The corporate split was officially finalized on June 28, 2013; during the stock splitting process, one share of the new News Corp was given to shareholders for every four shares they owned in the former News Corp.[11] The new News Corp formally began trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol "NWS" on July 1, 2013; at the same time, the former News Corporation (now consisting purely of media properties, such as Fox Entertainment Group and 20th Century Fox) was renamed 21st Century Fox.[12][13]

After the split[edit]

On September 4, 2013, News Corp announced that it would sell the Dow Jones Local Media Group, a group of 33 local newspapers, to Newcastle Investment Corp.—an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, for $87 million. The newspapers will be operated by GateHouse Media, a newspaper group owned by Fortress. Robert Thomson indicated that the newspapers "were not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio" of the company.[14]GateHouse then filed for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 27, 2013, to restructure its debt obligations in order to accommodate the acquisition.[15] then GateHouse emerged from bankruptcy on November 26, 2013.

On December 20, 2013, News Corp announced its acquisition of Mark Little's Storyful, a news agency specializing in verifying and distributing user-generated content relating to news events from social networking services, for $25 million, marking News Corp's first acquisition since the split. Robert Thomson stated that the service had "become the village square for valuable video, using journalistic sensibility, integrity and creativity to find, authenticate and commercialise user-generated content", and that with the purchase, News Corp would "define the opportunities that the digital landscape presents, rather than simply adapt to them."[16][17]

On May 2, 2014, News Corp acquired romance novel publisher Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar for $415 million.[18] The deal closed on August 1; it is now operated a subsidiary .[19] On September 30, 2014, News Corp announced its acquisition of Move, Inc., a real estate listings company and owner of Realtor.com. A 20% stake is owned by REA Group, a publicly-traded subsidiary of News Corp Australia.[20]

News Corp also began making multiple investments in India, such as a $30 million investment in real estate site ProTiger in November 2014,[21] the December 2014 purchase of BigDecisions.com, a financial planning website,[22] and the acquisition of Indian media firm VCCircle in March 2015.[23]

In October 2015, News Corp sold its digital education brand Amplify Education to a management team supported by a group of private investors for an undisclosed sum.[24]

Assets[edit]

Main article: List of assets owned by News Corp.

The company consists primarily of the former News Corp's newspaper and book publishing assets; including:[25][10]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b News Corp 2015 Form 10-K
  2. ^ "Rupert Murdoch Biography". Bio. Retrieved July 10, 2014. 
  3. ^ a b c "News Corp confirms plan to split the media giant". BBC News. 28 June 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2012. 
  4. ^ "News Corp. Will Use Fox Name as Breakup Proceeds". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 December 2012. 
  5. ^ a b "News Corp. board approves company split, set for June 28". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved 25 May 2013. 
  6. ^ "New News is good news, says mogul". Business Day. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 29 May 2013. 
  7. ^ a b Szalai, Georg (28 May 2013). "News Corp. Unveils Post-Split Logo Based on Rupert Murdoch's Handwriting". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 29 May 2013. 
  8. ^ Wall, Matthew (2013-06-11). "News Corp shareholders vote to split company into two". BBC News. Retrieved 2013-06-11. 
  9. ^ "News Corp. plans June 11 shareholder vote on company split". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 May 2013. 
  10. ^ a b "New News Corp starts trading at $15 per share". The Australian. Retrieved 19 June 2013. 
  11. ^ a b "'New News Corp' makes muted stock market debut". Retrieved 19 June 2013. 
  12. ^ "News Corp officially splits in two". BBC News. Retrieved 29 June 2013. 
  13. ^ "Rupert Murdoch splits empire but keeps faith in tomorrow's newspapers". The Guardian. 2013-06-18. Retrieved 2013-06-18. 
  14. ^ "News Corp. sells 33 papers to New York investors". New York Business Journal. Retrieved 4 September 2013. 
  15. ^ "GateHouse Files for Bankruptcy as Part of Fortress Plan". Bloomberg. 
  16. ^ "News Corp Makes Social-Media Push". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 December 2013. 
  17. ^ "News Corp buys Storyful for £15m". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2013. 
  18. ^ "News Corp. to Buy Harlequin for $415M". ABC News. May 2, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2014. 
  19. ^ "Torstar Corporation Completes Sale of Harlequin Enterprises Limited". 
  20. ^ "News Corp. to Buy Move, a Real Estate Listings Site". The New York Times. September 30, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014. 
  21. ^ "News Corp Makes First Investment In India, Putting $30M Into Real Estate Site PropTiger". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 31 July 2015. 
  22. ^ "News Corp Buys India-Based Financial Planning Service BigDecisions.com". TechCrunch. December 21, 2014. Retrieved December 21, 2014. 
  23. ^ "News Corp acquires Indian media firm VCCircle Network". Business Standard. March 10, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2015. 
  24. ^ "News Corp sells digital education brand Amplify". Reuters. 30 September 2015. 
  25. ^ Sweney, Mark (21 December 2012). "News Corp's head of demerged newspaper arm may take home £2.5m". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 December 2012. 

External links[edit]

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