News Corp. plans poison pill to thwart Liberty

[mindspell]

This is pretty crazy stuff, could affect a lot of media outlets...

WASHINGTON - Two of the world's media titans may be getting set to square off in a clash that will have a wide impact across the industry.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the world's fifth-largest media company, yesterday adopted a plan to thwart any hostile takeover after John Malone's Liberty Media Corp. said it planned to boost its stake in the company.

Liberty last week said it may increase its holding to as much as 17% of News Corp.'s voting shares by buying US$1.5 billion in stock. News Corp. said it will offer half-price stock to shareholders should Liberty's stake exceed 17% , making it more difficult for outsiders to wrest control from the Murdoch family.

The poison pill shows tension between Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Malone.

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=36bfb435-62d9-438b-98f0-fae33fb85eac

 

[xfer]

i'm guessing "poison pill" is some kind of mergers-and-acquisitions business term that i'm ignorant of. unfortunate.

 

[xfer]

shit, i don't even understand what a "hostile takeover" is.

 

[lizard]

isn't a hostile takeover simply an effort by one company to establish economic control over another company without target company's cooperation, if not downright noncooperation?

as opposed to say, a merger.

 

[xfer]

i dunno man i couldn't even finish reading your post without my eyes glazing over and the boringest dollar signs ever floating in front of them.

 

[avi]

having worked in a business-news organization, I could probably explain a bunch of this garbage, but really, in the end it doesn't matter.

 

[xfer]

"it turns out, in the end, that i didn't care."