03-11-2012: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp boosted its share of Australia’s pay-TV market after shareholders in Consolidated Media Holdings voted in favour of a A$2bn (£1.3bn) takeover offer from News Corp.
Reuters reports that the deal will double the stake of News Corp’s Australian arm in dominant pay-TV operator Foxtel to 50% and give it 100% of content provider Fox Sports, increasing its pay-TV exposure at the same time as it cuts costs at its print operations.
Consolidated Media said shareholders at a meeting on Wednesday voted 99.9% in favour of the takeover. Its board had backed the offer.
“Foxtel and Fox Sports are going to be two cornerstone assets in the News Corp publishing business after the demerger, and I assume the market will put fairly healthy multiples on those assets,” Citi analyst Justin Diddams told Reuters.
News Corp announced plans in June to split the $60bn (£37bn) media conglomerate into two publicly traded companies, publishing and entertainment. The split will take about a year to complete.
The publishing arm will include Australian newspaper The Australian, UK newspapers The Times and The Sun, The Wall St Journal, book publisher Harper Collins, and pay-TV assets including Fox Sports, Foxtel and Sky TV New Zealand.