Word: murdochized
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...When Murdoch bought 7% of Warner's stock last month for $98 million, he insisted that it was only an "investment." But that claim sounded suspicious coming from a grand acquisitor. Murdoch has already bought the New York Post (for $30 million), the Boston Herald ($1 million plus a share of future profits) and the Chicago Sun-Times ($90 million) and established a sprawling publishing empire with assets of $1.5 billion that now includes more than 80 newspapers and magazines in the U.S., Britain and Australia. Wall Street immediately began to wonder if Murdoch wanted to charge into...
Warner Chairman Steven Ross did not wait for the Australian to make his next move. Two weeks ago, he struck up a partnership with Chris-Craft Industries that seemed tailor-made to thwart a Murdoch takeover bid. The agreement calls for Chris-Craft, a diversified New York-based manufacturer of boat engines, plastic products and chemicals, with fiscal 1983 revenues of $84.4 million and profits of $3.99 million, to acquire about 25% of Warner's stock. In return, Warner would gain a 42.5% stake in a Chris-Craft subsidiary that owns two television stations and interests in four others...
...that deal goes through and Murdoch then tries to take over Warner, he might run afoul of any number of federal laws and regulations. One is the Communications Act of 1934, which prohibits foreign ownership of broadcast licenses. Moreover, one of the Chris-Craft stations is in San Antonio, where Murdoch has two newspapers, and the Federal Communications Commission frowns on a company's owning both broadcast and print media in the same locale...
Ross seemed to have sandbagged Murdoch. But then the press lord asked the FCC last week to review the partnership proposed by Warner and Chris-Craft, arguing that if the two companies joined forces, they would illegally own both cable-TV networks and direct-broadcast stations in some cities...
...Murdoch met secretly with Ross and Chris-Craft Chairman Herbert Siegel in the Manhattan offices of Allen & Co., the Australian's investment banker. Ross and Siegel reportedly tried to persuade Murdoch to sell his Warner shares, but they must have failed. Murdoch subsequently sued Warner and Chris-Craft in a Delaware state court, saying that their deal was designed merely to protect the interests of the managements of the two corporations...