The full News. Corp board will meet this week to discuss the fallout from the News of the World “Phone Hacking” scandal and then, on Wednesday, deliver its end of year financial report which it hopes will shift attention and allow the company to move on.
The big news on the tech side is that News Corp (NWSA). finally sold off the long suffering Myspace, which had been a perpetual eye sore on its quarterly results. The purchase price wasn’t enough to move the needle, but it will stem the losses in the interactive division. The cable division and Fox in particular, are expected to deliver their typically stellar results.
News Corp is sitting on $12 billion in cash, much of which it had hoped to spend on the now defunct BSkyB deal. The company will probably heed its large investors wishes to buy back a large chunk of stock, but savvy start-ups could also grab a piece of the pie through a tactical M&A deal. Start pitching those biz dev types today!
The big question is whether Murdoch will remain his position as chairman of the company. Institutional investors in News Corp. are game to strip him of his title, hoping that his removal will allow the company’s stock to bounce back from the losses it sustained during the scandal.
