News Corp. chief Robert Thomson is putting the Amplify electronic learning/curriculum platform unit on the auction block to rid the media company of the money-losing operation.
Former chief Rupert Murdoch shelled out $360M in 2010 to purchase Wireless Generation, which was renamed Amplify, and installed New York City Education chief Joel Klein to run the show.
News Corp. is now ending the production of tablets for schoolchildren and curbing marketing efforts to attract new customers for Amplify.
Thomson told analysts News Corp. is in "advanced stages of negotiations" with a buyer for the remaining education business.
Klein said it's time to work "with partners who share a deep understanding of what it takes to be successful in education."
The company is taking a $371M "impairment" charge for Amplify.
Due to restructuring charges, News Corp reported a $379M loss for Q4 ended June compared to a $12M year ago profit.
Thomson said the company had a strong Q4 finish to a good fiscal year, bolstered by businesses such as realtor.com.
The news and information services group (Wall Street Journal, Sun, New York Post, Times of London, The Australian,) recorded a 29 percent rise in profit (EBITDA) to $169M in Q4 on a 10 percent dip in revenues to $1.4B due to a decline in ad sales.
Thomson sees fiscal `16 as "an opportunity to build on the sound and profitable platform we have collectively created."
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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.”
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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.
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