News Corp (NSQ:NWSA) confirms plan to split in two

Palm Beach, FL 6/28/12 (StreetBeat) -- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NSQ:NWSA) said on Thursday it would pursue splitting the $60 billion media conglomerate into separate publicly traded publishing and entertainment companies.

Murdoch will be chairman of both companies and will be chief executive of the entertainment business. The company did not name a chief executive for the new publishing company.

News Corp's board, overseen by the 81-year-old Murdoch, met on Wednesday and authorized management to move ahead with the separation, the company said.

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News Corp (Nasdaq: NWSA) considering splitting into two: WSJ

Northern, WI 6/26/12 (StreetBeat) -- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (Nasdaq: NWSA) is considering splitting into two to separate its publishing assets from its more lucrative entertainment business, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Shareholders have been pushing for some time for a spin-off of the slower-growth publishing division after a phone hacking scandal hit its British newspapers, sending shockwaves through the group and forcing News Corp to pull its biggest-ever acquisition of the pay-TV group BSkyB.

A final decision on the split has not been made, the News Corp-owned paper said, and the Murdoch family is not expected to lose its effective control of any of the businesses involved if the plan goes ahead.

News Corp's Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said in May that the management and board had discussed spinning off its publishing business following investor pressure but that they did not have any plans to push ahead with it at the time.

Murdoch had earlier opposed the move and as recently as May released a statement saying the group was not considering spinning off its British newspapers to protect the rest of the empire. But the Journal reported that he has recently warmed to the idea, citing one person familiar with the situation.

The publishing division includes the HarperCollins book publisher, the education arm and newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, the Sun, the New York Post and The Australian.

The remaining film and television businesses would include 20th Century Fox film studio, Fox broadcast network and Fox News channel. The entertainment business would dwarf the publishing unit, with assets in the entertainment division generating revenues of $23.5 billion in the year to June 2011, compared with $8.8 billion for the publishing business.

Analysts believe investors and some management will feel emboldened by the hacking scandal to push for a change at the company, where the 81-year-old Murdoch has long been seen as the main block to a spin-off of the newspapers.

The Australian-born tycoon made his name by buying newspapers in Australia and then the News of the World, the Sun and the Times newspapers in Britain and talks often about his love for newspapers and the publishing industry.

Analysts in London said the move would make sense and would be welcomed by investors, who saw the value of the company plummet last year at the height of the phone hacking scandal, before recovering this year to four-year highs helped by a share buyback scheme.

Shares in News Corp in Australia closed up 2.6 percent On Tuesday.

London-based analyst Ian Whittaker at Liberum Capital noted that a spin-off of the publishing division could enable News Corp to make another bid for BSkyB once the hacking scandal has died down.

"It's credible and it makes sense, given that the newspaper part has been the scandal-hit element of the business," he said. "It also suggests that they may even have another tilt at Sky in the medium term. I imagine it would be seen as positive by the shareholders outside of the family."

News Corp pulled the $12 billion bid for the 61 percent of BSkyB it did not already own last July under a weight of public outrage sparked by the admission that staff at the News of the World tabloid had repeatedly hacked into phones to source salacious stories.

The scandal reverberated throughout the wider New York-based media conglomerate and disrupted what was thought to be a smooth plan for Murdoch to be succeeded as CEO by his youngest son, James.

It has also revealed the close relationships in Britain between the government and News Corp executives. Police have arrested over 50 News Corp staff and public officials while the former head of the British newspaper division Rebekah Brooks, a close confidante to Murdoch, is awaiting a trial for interfering with the police investigation.

Julie Henderson, a spokesperson for News Corp. declined to comment while a spokeswoman in London also refused to be drawn on the report.

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Thursday’s biggest gaining and declining stocks

Shawshank, VA 5/10/12 (StreetBeat) – These stocks made notable moves in U.S. trading on Thursday:

Gainers
Monster Beverage Corp. (Nasdaq: MNST) shares rose 11%. The company reported strong first-quarter sales growth as well as wider gross and operating margins.

News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA +5.26%) shares were up 5.3% a day after the company’s report of better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter results and its pledge to add $5 billion to its existing $5 billion stock repurchase plan. News Corp. is the parent company of Dow Jones & Co., which includes MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.

Tesla Motors Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA +11.38%) shares climbed 14.4%. On Wednesday, the company posted a drop in first-quarter revenue and profit, but said it expects to begin delivering its all-electric Model S in June, a month ahead of schedule. The firm also upped the low end of its 2012 revenue estimate.

Decliners
Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO -8.56%) shares fell 8.5% a day after the firm issued a weaker-than-expected outlook for the current quarter, as Chief Executive John Chambers pointed to a “cautious” spending environment.

Silicon Graphics International Corp. (Nasdaq: SGI -20.79%) shares tumbled 20.5%. Late Wednesday, the company trimmed its outlook for the full year.

Universal Display Corp. (Nasdaq: PANL -8.99%) shares fell 10%. The company reported that its first-quarter loss narrowed, but the results missed Wall Street expectations.

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LargeCap Stocks to Keep an Eye on Today

Tomahawk, WI 8/11/2011 (PennyPayDay) – Information technology and networking giant Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) edged Wall Street's earnings expectations Wednesday, but posted a slight drop in profit for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Cisco reported adjusted earnings per share of 40 cents on sales of $11.2 billion, above analysts' expectations of earnings per share of 38 cents on sales of $10.98 billion.

Shares were surging 12.2% to $15.40 in premarket trading Thursday.

Food company Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE) reported fourth-quarter profit of 20 cents a share, meeting estimates.

Shares were falling 5% to $16.45.

Global media company News Corp. (NYSE: NWSA) reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit, earning 35 cents a share on revenue of $8.96 billion. Analysts were calling for a profit of 30 cents a share on revenue of $8.46 billion.

"While it has been a good quarter from a financial point of view, our company has faced challenges in recent weeks relating to our London tabloid, News of the World," CEO Rupert Murdoch said in a statement, referring to the phone hacking scandal that brought down the tabloid. "We are acting decisively in the matter and will do whatever is necessary to prevent something like this from ever occurring again."

Shares were rising 4.2% to $14.28.

Media company AOL (NYSE: AOL) said Thursday it plans to buy back $250 million of stock over the next 12 months.

Shares were rising 2.5% to $10.47 in premarket trading.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) said Thursday second-quarter profit rose 26% to $1.45 billion, but volume in the U.S., its largest market, slumped.

Analysts were expecting the world's largest brewer to post profit of $1.5 billion in the second quarter.

Shares were tumbling 2.5% to $48.50.

Department store Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) reported second-quarter profit of $1.09 a share vs. the average analyst estimate of $1.08. Shares were rising 2.1% to $45.24.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) has been holding talks with the principal investment funds of Kuwait and Qatar about selling part of its stake in China Construction Bank as it rushes to bolster its mortgage-scarred balance sheet, Reuters reported.

Bank of America shares were rising 0.5% to $6.80.

Department store Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) is expected to report second-quarter earnings of 74 cents a share after the markets close Thursday vs. last year's earnings of 66 cents a share.

Shares were down 0.4% to $40.

Restaurant company Wendy's (NYSE: WEN) is expected to post second-quarter profit of 5 cents a share before the markets open Thursday vs. last year's earnings of 6 cents a share.

J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) is expected to post second-quarter earnings of 7 cents a share before the markets open Friday vs. the average analyst estimate of 6 cents a share a year ago.

There are worries that the department store could face headwinds as forecasts of a slowdown in economic activity persists.

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Microsoft TV Coming Soon to an Xbox Near You

Microsoft Corp (NasdaqGS:MSFT) has held talks with media companies to license TV networks for a new online pay-television subscription service through devices such as its Xbox video game console, two people familiar with the plans told Reuters.

The software giant's possible push into the television business comes as Google Inc (NasdaqGS:GOOG), Apple Inc (NasdaqGS:AAPL) and Netflix have jostled for a seat at the table of television's future -- a main topic of discussion at the Reuters Global Media Summit to be held this week.

The maker of the Windows operating system has proposed a range of possibilities in these early talks including creating a "virtual cable operator" delivered over the Internet for which users pay a monthly fee.

Other options include using the Xbox to authenticate existing cable subscribers to watch shows with enhanced interactivity similar to how pay TV operators have sought to do over the Web, said these people.

Microsoft is also exploring the possibility of creating content silos and selling more individual channels directly such as an HBO or Showtime. It already has Walt Disney Co's (NYSE:DIS) ESPN on the XBox Live online service for example.

These people said a service may not arrive for another 12 months, but early discussions have been productive.
Microsoft said it does not comment on rumor or speculation. The people involved in the talks asked not to identified as the discussions were confidential.

News of Microsoft's plans come as the pay-television industry has sought to allay investor concerns that consumers are fleeing expensive subscription packages for cheaper online services operated by companies such as Netflix Inc (NasdaqGS:NFLX) and Hulu, which both charge $7.99 per month for streamed shows and movies. The phenomenon is called "cord-cutting."

The worry is that so-called over-the-top services could undermine the lucrative cable TV industry, whose dual-revenue stream model -- cable networks such as ESPN are paid carriage fees by pay TV operators and also earn revenue from advertisers -- has made pay-TV one of the most resilient sectors during the economic recession.

But programmers would welcome new types of competition to the cable and satellite companies, senior media executives said.

"We think the more competition the better, we will price and package it in such a way that we still make the dual revenue stream," said one of the people who spoke to Reuters. "We could probably charge more for interactive advertising."

Microsoft has long held ambitions to be a major player in the TV business and has previously invested in interactive television initiatives including Web TV and MSN TV set-top box software.

Its latest plans include offering interactivity to engage viewers through social media, interactive advertising and motion control technology, say people who have seen early demonstrations.

Microsoft has bet on new "gesture" technology that lets users of its Xbox, who buy a camera accessory called the Kinect, control on-screen functions using voice to launch channels and waving arms to fast-forward or rewind videos on ESPN.

The Redmond, Washington, company is said to be mulling feedback it has received from programmers including the expense of such a plan but it is not likely to roll out a service in the next 12 months, said one person.

The market to determine the future of television distribution and technology has accelerated over the past year.
Google has already launched Google TV, an enhanced Web-TV service with partners including Sony Corp (Tokyo:6758.T) televisions and Logitech set-top boxes. While Google has also announced Time Warner Inc's (NYSE:TWX) Turner Networks as a programing partner, it is not yet planning to offer a full suite of cable networks in the near future.

Apple has also held talks with programmers, but faced resistance industry-wide over its plans to offer a lower-cost subscription TV plan, people familiar with the talks have said. Apple has begun to offer 99-cent TV show rentals for a limited number shows through News Corp's (NasdaqGS:NWSA) Fox and Disney.