news corp

On today's show, it's a total Monday, so we devolve into nonsense words a little bit. It's mostly to stave off our justified rage over Cablevision and News Corp.'s money-motivated, consumer-unfriendly standoff. In other news, Google offers personalized Doodles on your birthday, and Borders offers yet another manifesto outlet. --Molly

Make no mistake, there are no definitive offers on the table to do a variety of takeover deals of Yahoo by either private equity moneybags or from big media giants such as News Corp. and smaller Web firms such as AOL.

But that does not mean that major players are not circling Yahoo and assessing the situation aggressively, a fact reflected in the rise in the Internet giant's stock price today based on the many rumors swirling around it.

Despite being news to some, BoomTown had previously written about all these various scenarios, including interest from News Corp. and AOL, … Read more

Former HP CEO Mark Hurd, who recently left the company amid a sexual harassment scandal, is losing another position.

Hurd failed to be nominated for re-election to the board of directors of News Corp. and will exit that position after the company's annual meeting on October 15, according to a proxy statement filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A member of News Corp.'s board since February 2008, Hurd had been one of five members serving on the company's nominating and corporate governance committee.

"After discussions between the company and Mark Hurd, it was determined … Read more

Hulu, the online TV and film portal, has finally rolled out a subscription service, according to a note posted to the site on Tuesday.

For $9.99 a month, subscribers of Hulu Plus get access to a full season's worth of their favorite TV shows--and even past seasons in some cases--and "not just a handful of trailing episodes" that the free-version of Hulu offers, according to CEO Jason Kilar, who wrote the note.

Hulu Plus marks the first time the service has charged for content and it's arrival has been long anticipated. Supported by Disney, NBC … Read more

Following a report on TechCrunch, MySpace co-president Jason Hirschhorn has confirmed via his personal Twitter account that he's leaving the company after fewer than six months at the helm.

Hirschhorn, an MTV Networks and Sling Media veteran, had been at MySpace for just over a year, having previously served as chief product officer.

"Yes i am moving back to NYC. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of. I believe in MySpace, its leader Jonesy and its wonderful team," Hirschhorn tweeted. He was referring to Mike Jones, who with Hirschhorn took over the co-presidency at News Corp.-owned … Read more

In January, Hearst and Sprint showed off something called a Skiff e-reader, which was designed with newspapers and magazines in mind and was supposed to go on sale this year.

Hope you weren't planning on buying one.

News Corp. announced Monday that it has purchased Skiff from Hearst--but only the publisher's e-reader software platform. The device itself remains the property of Hearst, but it doesn't want it, either: I'm told the publisher is trying to find a buyer.

It's theoretically possible that Sprint will continue forward with a reading device that didn't seem very … Read more

News Corp.--the newspaper, TV, and film company built by media mogul Rupert Murdoch--sees something in digital music it likes.

News Corp. has acquired a small stake in music start-up Beyond Oblivion, which plans to enable consumer electronics makers to preload music on handhelds, computers, and other gadgets, according to multiple music sources.

Beyond Oblivion did not respond to interview requests. Allen & Co., the well-known boutique investment bank, was also part of the $10 million series B funding round.

With MySpace Music, News Corp., already has acquired a significant position in digital music. That site is run in partnership … Read more

It appears the day when we we'll be paying to read general interest news stories on the Web is coming sooner rather than later--perhaps as early as June for readers of the U.K.-based Times publications.

News International, the British division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., announced on Friday that two of its newspapers, The Times and The Sunday Times of London, are set to begin charging readers using its sites in June.

The two papers have been offering their content in a combined news Web site called Times Online. Under the new plan, however, News International … Read more

A new profile of septuagenarian media mogul Rupert Murdoch says that the News Corp. chief is ready to press legal action against Google if talks fail with the search giant over indexing content.

In a lengthy article in New York magazine that hit the Web late on Sunday, writer Gabriel Sherman quotes a source high up in the media industry echelon who says Murdoch is "pretty tightly wound up over Google and has been ready to sue them...He doesn't trust them at all." The lawsuit, presumably, would come if Google refused to stop indexing News Corp. … Read more