Drea Knufken
Best known in the US for owning the Fox network of television stations, News Corporation’s Murdoch is a man on a media mission. Between movie and TV studios, its Fox TV broadcasting company, cable channels, global satellite TV broadcasting, marketing company that delivers direct mail, online, and in-store advertisements; 36 global newspapers, and ownership of the international publishing house HarperCollins, News Corp. has a serious stake in your mind space.
That’s not all. Murdoch also has stakes in major websites including Hulu, AskMen.com and MySpace. One of Murdoch’s more interesting recent moves was a stake-swap with Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s Rotana media company. The purveyor of Fox now owns a 9% stake in one of the biggest media networks in the Middle East; in turn, Alwaleed Bin Talal now owns a major stake in News Corp. (and, by association, Fox). One has to marvel at Murdoch’s politics.
