The Murdoch family has abandoned its bid to reunite Fox Corp and News Corp. Although some fund managers had opposed the plan from the start, it was thought that the price of getting the deal through could be News Corp’s divestment / IPO of Dow Jones (publisher of the Wall Street Journal) and/or its real estate digitals in the US and Australia.
The two listed companies had split in 2013 as a result of the phone hacking scandal in which News Corp’s UK tabloids were implicated – and are still facing legal claims. Fox Corp is worth some $17bn and News Corp $11bn.
In the event, CoStar has agreed to acquire News Corp’s US-based Move for $3bn. Interestingly, the real estate digital which had been acquired in 2014 for $950m, is 20% owned by the US$11bn Australian listed, 28-year-old REA Group in which News Corp is a 61% shareholder.
While we may guess that News Corp may next be seeking to sell its stake in REA (whose shares have gained more than 10% in the past month), perhaps an IPO (or sale to Bloomberg?) of Dow Jones may also be in prospect…
