Rupert Murdoch Tries to Buy Time Warner, HBO for $80 Billion - Update
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Devin Connors
1 POSTED: 16 Jul 2014 12:40
Murdoch's 11-figure advance was rebuffed, as Time Warner sees uncertainty in 21st Century Fox's stock, and future.
Update: Rupert Murdoch and 21st Century Fox have officially rescinded the offer to buy Time Warner.
According to The New York Times, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes received an email from Murdoch on Tuesday evening, saying "On behalf of our board and senior management team, I am writing to inform you that we are withdrawing our offer to acquire Time Warner, effective immediately."
Instead of buying Time Warner, 21st Century Fox will now buy back roughly $6 billion worth of its own stock from the open market.
Original Story: Rupert Murdoch recently tried to buy Time Warner, and its subsidiary HBO, for a staggering $80 billion. The offer was turned down, according to The New York Times.
Time Warner owns and operates a number of subsidiaries, including HBO, Turner (TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network), Warner Bros., DC Comics, and the Bleacher Report. If 21st Century Fox (Fox, FX, Fox Sports, etc.) were to complete a buyout, the result would be an absolute behemoth of a media conglomerate.
Time Warner issued a press release about the proposed merger/buyout, which would have sent Fox cash and stock to Time Warner, outlining its reasons for the rebuff. "...after consultation with its financial and legal advisors, [Time Warner] determined that it was not in the best interests of Time Warner or its stockholders to accept the Proposal or to pursue any discussions with Twenty-First Century Fox."
Time Warner would go on to say that "there are considerable strategic, operational, and regulatory risks to executing a combination," and that managing a conglomerate of such size would be extremely difficult.
If the deal were to go through, there would be many a regulatory hoop to jump through. Fox would likely have to sell CNN to another media company, or spin it off as independent. And both Fox and WB being under the same umbrella would raise at least a few eyebrows.
This deal is not to be confused with Comcast's merger with Time Warner Cable, as the latter has been an independently operated business since separating from Time Warner in 2009...not that any of us are particularly thrilled about that deal, either.
Source: NYT
youji itami
No FOX go buy Sony then you can do a FF, X men and Spiderman crossover film.
The above is pure sarcasm by the way.
What is it with mega mergers lately? are they trying to build a real cyberpunk type megacorp.
Soulrender95
I'm almost sorry that it didn't happen, almost... it would have been hilarious to see Justice League . Superman, Batman, Wonder woman and red lantern Wolverine :P
just for the sheer randomness and general weirdness of seeing that happen instead of seeing wolverine in the avengers alongside spidey as should happen.
antigodoflife
Oh thank god. Never give HBO to that awful human being.
Also, the "Time" half of "Time Warner" would never sell anything to Murdoch thankfully.
antigodoflife:
I doubt Murdoch cares as he already dumped the newspaper and magazine part into the new, News Corp last year.
It really does look like 'dead tree' media (or at least the magazine and newspaper parts) could be gone in our lifetime which when you think of how old paper is, is quite shocking.
Mr.Mattress
Doesn't Ted Turner still own, or at least have sway, over Time Warner? If so, then I would see how a really left-leaning Liberal wouldn't allow a really right-leaning Conservative to buy his property, or something he works for...
Don't get too depressed Mr. Murdoch. You still own and cotnrol every Australian network of note and have a personal dick sucker in the form of Tony Abbot.
youji itami:
Murdoch owns more than just news, dude. And where I live, his 'dead tree' media is doing just fine, in fact, I hate the guy for holding my country hostage, politically, due to said 'dead tree' media, so I think I'm within my right to hate the fucker.
All fan-boy inter-franchise speculation and "business is business" rationalizing aside, in as many words as I'm allowed on this forum:
Screw this man. Screw his insatiable, toxic, apocalyptically greedy ambition.
This kind of corporate garbage is destructive to the very idea of competition and free-markets and should not be allowed to even be considered in a rational society. I know it's America and that enterprise means taking every advantage possible, but by God there needs to be limits before that kind of psychotic juggernaut becomes a reality.
10 POSTED: 16 Jul 2014 13:44
Murdoch owns more than just news, dude. In fact, I hate the guy for essentially holding my country hostage at the moment, so I think I'm within my right to hate the fucker.
You're not the only one. He's got Australia by the balls as well as several others. He's well known to have had a hand in the slow progress of many a nation's fiber internet development, convincing many politicians, including the PM of Australia, that 20mb/s will be more than enough for the average household for the next 50 years. Because if Netflix ever got a hold in countries outside of America, he knows his TV and news empire wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
Alpha Maeko
80 Billion?!
Give me 0.001% (800,000 USD) of that and I'll be set for the rest of my life.
why won't he just die already X*(. I know its not going to be utopia after he goes to hell and some other piece shit is going crawl from underneath a rock to take his place but at least HE WILL be dead. So just die, NO ONE LIKE YOU!
kurupt87
I wish this old cunt would up and die already.
Edit: Poster above me has the same idea.
Irridium
Good. Fuck Murdoch. The last thing this fucker needs is more huge companies. And another last thing we need is already huge companies becoming bigger. Never works out well for anyone. Well, except those at the top. Those fuckers always get off well.
Mcoffey
Fuck you for having 80 billion dollars, Rupert Murdoch. You have made the world a worse place, you greedy piece of shit.
shirkbot
That's enough money to give 1 million USD to 80,000 people, which incidentally would be a much better use of that money. It's enough to provide almost a lifetime's worth of money to every man, woman and child on the Isle of Man. Not only is that an obscene sum of money for any single person to hold, but a merger of that scale would set off alarm bells across the board at such volume that the entire planet would likely go deaf... Murdoch truly represents everything that is wrong with the super-wealthy and modern media.
Crackerjacks
Well that's good, but I still wish we'd see some trust-busting lately.
shirkbot:
Murdoch doesn't have $80 billion the company 21st Century Fox doesn't either this deal would have been a combination of cash, stocks and Fox getting lots of debt.
Many corporations should be broken up and mergers should not be allowed if they compete in the same market. It's one thing to have a mega-corp that has it's fingers in 10 different markets it is another altogether when they have 10 different parts of the same market. One they have to compete the other they don't.
One of those "I read topic title as..." moments.
This time around: "Rupert Murdoch Dies..."
Would have pleased with just that much.
Callate
It's good we have Murdoch around to remind us that EA is not, in fact, the number one avaricious acquisitive behemoth juggernaut soul-sucking beast from Hell.
...And that is probably as close as I will ever come to saying something positive about Rupert Murdoch.
gigastar
Alpha Maeko:
Thats a bit optimistic, really.
Unless the rest of your life is about 20 years, and you dont own a car.
JCAll
Rupert Murdoch almost bought Captain Planet. If ever there were 2 ideologies that don't mesh.
Mr.Mattress:
Ted Turner's last position with Time Warner was on the Board of Directors, which he vacated in 2006.
Macsen Wledig
gigastar:
Yeah, the guy should ask for 0.010% (8,000,000) then he'll be laughing.
Shamanic Rhythm
What's bad for Murdoch can only be good for the rest of us.
Edit: So judging on the sentiment in this thread, there's going to be a party when he dies.
Darks63
Not sure if it would have mattered even if murdoch succeeded since the new company would like be subject to antitrust hearings thereafter.
gridsleep
I don't know about you, but I find corporate mating rituals to be the smarmiest kind of porn. I always have to watch some German scat movies afterward to feel cleaner.
RicoADF
Shamanic Rhythm:
Here in Australia there may even be a national holiday lol, yeah I can wish. Seriously that guy is fucking my nation over beyond belief and he doesn't even have the decency to use lube..... >.<
RicoADF:
You needn't remind me, I'm also Australian :/ Although when I go overseas now I don't bother correcting people if they think I'm British or Canadian.
In that case we'll have to get together for a celebratory beer the day that happens, are you near Sydney by any chance?
I wonder if somebody has already registered "IsMurdochDeadYet.com"?
I still remember the street parties after Thatcher popped her clogs, and now of course all the dirt that was hidden while she was alive is coming out. (Turns out her Government was complicit in covering up institutionalised child rape.)
edit: Yep, somebody has! Though its .co.uk rather than .com.
Evil Smurf
I will dance on that cunt's grave when he dies, he's ruining Australia, and is the soul reason I've not gotten season 4 of GoT. So I wish all business ventures of his to fail.
Jacques Jones
Dear Rupert Murdoch; Just....Go. Away. Please, go away. We don't need your slime clogging our TV screens just like it's clogged Australia's leadership. Retire, give your money to people who need that money to EAT for a day, and just go FAR away from civilisation.
LG Jargon
Evil Smurf:
I don't care where that fucker is buried: here, in the U.S., or somewhere in Australia. I will go on vacation, find his grave, and dance and/or urinate all over it when he finally passes. Wish I did the same for Fred Phelps.
OT: Fuck you, Murdoch, you piece of shit. I'm glad this whole cruddy thing fell through; there're too many mega-corporations holding onto too much shit as it is without you trying to pull us all under your asshat conservative belief system. God, I dare not imagine what horrors he and his ilk would've wreaked on the channels Time-Warner hold. Cartoon Network would probably have Deeno the Dinosaur's Creationist Hour, and (if I'm right about the channels Time-Warner / Turner hold) The Daily Show would be canceled within three seconds of the deal going through. God forbid.