Murdoch Keeps His Sights on Newsday

Rupert Murdoch: “no, I don’t think Cablevision will prevail; just be patient for a couple days.” Several weeks ago it appeared that News Corporation had a tentative deal to buy Newsday, based on Long Island, for about $580 million, but two other bidders have come forward. Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the owner of The Daily News, matched Murdoch’s offer, while Cablevision, the Long Island cable operator that also owns Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks and Rangers, was a late entrant but upped the ante to $650 million. Murdoch has set his sights on Newsday because he sees it as a way to eliminate losses at The New York Post, a News Corporation property that loses an estimated $50 million a year. By combining Newsday and The Post, the company believes it could earn about $50 million a year in profit. urdoch said Wednesday that the company was taking separate steps to stem losses at The Post. He said the paper would raise its cover price within the next two weeks to 50 cents, from a quarter. Other initiatives could save the paper roughly $20 million a year, Murdoch said. Raising the price is risky, given that last year an increase to 50 cents was quickly reversed as sales suffered. The LA Times also reports that News Corp. executives worked Wednesday to bolster investor confidence for MySpace, the online social network it won praise for buying in 2005 but lately has attracted concern from Wall Street.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/business/media/08news.html?ref=todaysp...
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