Let’s Fire Murdoch And Make Him Richer!
ALL this phone tapping, bribery of coppers, peeps being arrested and resigning: isn’t it all so much fun?
That our Lords and Masters are, were and always have been rapacious scoundrels we know.
However, there’s one part of this that certain people seem to be pushing too hard. That Murdoch needs to be forced to sell his businesses: perhaps all the newspapers, perhaps BSkyB. There are even those who insist he should have to sell the whole shooting match, just get out of News Corporation altogether.
That means getting rid of Fox, Star, the TV stuff in Asia, the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones: he should be entirely forced out of all media.
Well, OK, might be a lot of fun pursuing him unto the ends of the earth: the thing is though, doing this would just make him richer. For the thing is, all these different businesses are worth more alone than they are as part of News Corporation.
Ignore the unprofitable digital unit, tot it all up and strip out net debt of around $4 billion, and News Corp ought to be worth about $60 billion. The market values the shares almost 30 percent lower than that. For shareholders, that’s the downside of Murdoch’s clout writ large.
Do unto Murdoch whatever you want, of course, it’s a free country. But do note that if you strip him of his power, his company even, you’ll just be making him even richer.
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Posted: 18th, July 2011 | In: Money Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
