At Friday’s annual meeting, News Corp. shareholders extended the company’s nearly two-year-old poison pill anti-takeover defense, giving Rupert Murdoch more leverage over rival John Malone, who now owns a 19 percent stake in the media conglomerate. The measure was approved by a vote of 57 percent. Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei suggesting recently that an asset swap for News Corp.’s interest in DirecTV and other holdings could be near. But, according to Bloomberg, Murdoch downplayed the notion: “If Liberty is to be believed, we are on track to have a quick resolution. We are not under any pressure of time.” He added after the meeting, “We are quite relaxed.”
Poison pills are designed to make it difficult for someone to launch a hostile takeover. The provision approved today extends the defense, which was to expire in November, to October 2008, and prevents Malone’s Liberty Media from raising its stake in News Corp.
The future of News Corp. is very much on the minds of Wall Street which is interesting in learning who succeed the 75-year-old Murdoch. Murdoch only words on the subject today, according to AP: “I intend to be here for many, many more years.”
Maybe owning MySpace is keeping Murdoch youthful? Maybe he can’t decide which of his children should take over the company he built? As has been the case since the MySpace acquisition, News Corp.’s online strategy will be center stage when the company reports fiscal first quarter results on November 8; don’t be surprised if analysts push back on succession planning.
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