Murdoch’s talks with Malone at crucial stage

MURDOCH'S TALKS WITH MALONE AT CRUCIAL STAGE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Aline van Duyn]
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve in the coming weeks News Corp’s request to take control of 35 US television stations currently licensed to Rupert Murdoch. That move could have great impact on Murdoch’s negotiations with John Malone over buying back an 18 percent voting stake in News Corporation. The television stations were licensed to Mr Murdoch personally because he has US citizenship. When the stations were acquired, News Corp was an Australian entity. Now that News Corp is domiciled in the US -- a switch that allowed Mr Malone to buy the voting shares after Australian investors reduced their stake in the group -- it can own the licences directly. The FCC has had a request for transfer of control pending from News Corp, and its appointment last month of a fifth commissioner is expected to mean this will be approved within the next few weeks. Mr Murdoch, whose family controls just over 30 per cent of News Corp’s voting shares, has wanted to buy out Mr Malone since his long-time sparring partner accumulated the shares without Mr Murdoch’s knowledge in November 2004. Although Mr Malone has expressed his support for Mr Murdoch and his News Corp strategy, Mr Murdoch is believed to be worried that having one shareholder with such a large voting stake could threaten his family’s future control of the media empire, which includes newspapers such as The Times, 20th Century Fox studios, Fox television and cable businesses, and MySpace.com.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b9891928-f973-11da-8ced-0000779e2340.html
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