Media mogul Rupert Murdoch scotched his quest to acquire Time Warner Aug. 5 on the same day the New York Times reported unexpected opposition from TW management and questions about Murdoch's 41-year-old son James' ability to run the combined entity.
The Times also noted the liberal leanings of TW and its executives stand in sharp contrast to Murdoch's people
In a note to TW CEO Jeff Bewkes, Murdoch, 83, wrote: "on behalf of our board and senior management team. I am writing to inform you that we are withdrawing our offer to acquire Time Warner, effective immediately."
Murdoch's 21st Century Fox floated the $75B deal, which would have combined the two biggest movie and TV studios and presented a challenge to Disney's ESPN on the sports TV programming front.
In a statement, Murdoch blamed TW management and board for refusing to explore his $85 per-share offer.
"Additionally, the reaction to our stock price since our proposal was made undervalues our stock and makes the transaction unattractive to Fox shareholders," he wrote.
Murdoch, putting a spin on his defeat, said his 21st Century Fox unit faces a bright future with the leadership, franchise and emerging growth businesses to fuel future growth.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.