News Corp

News Corp., the global media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said it plans to raise at least $600 million in a sale of notes. The sale could raise as much as $700 million if initial purchasers of the notes exercise options to buy more, the Sydney-based company said. It said it will use cash raised in the offering to pay debt and for "general corporate purposes." News Corp. said it expects to issue 20-year notes that holders can exchange for News Corp.

Fallout from the British phone-hacking scandal continues to rattle News Corp., even as strong performances from the media giant's cable television and film groups helped it post a 47% jump in net income in its third quarter. News Corp. on Wednesday reported net income of $937 million for the quarter ended March 31, compared with $639 million a year earlier. Revenue increased to $8.4 billion, up 2% from a year earlier. Before discussing the New York company's financial results with Wall Street investors, Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey offered a spirited defense of his boss, Rupert Murdoch.

News Corp., owner of the Fox television network, said it named Michael Regan Jr., a former executive of NextWave Telecom Inc., as its senior vice president of government affairs. Regan, 40, takes over responsibility for government affairs from Robert Quicksilver, executive vice president of network distribution at News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting Co. Quicksilver will remain with the company in his current position, spokesman Andrew Butcher said.

Already the largest cable television provider in Los Angeles, Time Warner Cable Inc. now wants to become the dominant sports programmer in the region. On Oct. 1, the New York company will launch two regional sports networks: Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Spanish-language network Time Warner Cable Deportes. The cable operator has shelled out billions of dollars to snag the Los Angeles Lakers away from Fox Sports West and now has its eye on the Dodgers too. The company is tired of being held hostage by high-priced sports channels and has decided to stop fighting the competition and begin imitating it. The cable operator, which has about 2 million subscribers in Southern California, is taking steps to cut out the middle man. That middleman is News Corp., parent of local cable channels Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket and a formidable opponent.

News Corp. has finalized a pact to sell a Salt Lake City television station to gain regulatory approval for its purchase of Chris-Craft Industries Inc., U.S. antitrust enforcers said. News Corp., which owns Fox television network and 23 U.S. television stations, had foreshadowed the sale in January when it announced that the Department of Justice had closed its investigation into the proposed $5.3-billion deal.

NEW YORK -- Publisher Judith Regan and the media conglomerate News Corp. announced a confidential settlement Friday in the $100-million lawsuit Regan had filed against her former employer. In a joint statement, both sides said an amicable resolution was reached, in which neither party admitted any liability. News Corp.

Hughes Electronics Corp., operator of DirecTV, the top U.S. satellite TV broadcaster, was sued by a shareholder who wants a judge to block a possible takeover by News Corp. and order the company auctioned. News Corp., headed by Rupert Murdoch, has been in takeover talks with Hughes, a unit of General Motors Corp. EchoStar Communications Corp., the No. 2 U.S. satellite TV service with its Dish TV network, has offered to buy Hughes for about $30 billion.

The Federal Communications Commission will take weeks to complete its review of media titan News Corp.'s bid to acquire Chris-Craft Industries Inc. to allow three new commissioners to get up to speed, the agency's chief said Wednesday. The deal lacked enough support on the previous commission to win final approval. Two Republicans, Kathleen Abernathy and Kevin Martin, and one Democrat, Michael Copps, were confirmed last week by the Senate as commissioners of the FCC, which has five seats.

News Corp. denied Monday that Chairman Rupert Murdoch personally pulled the plug on a TV movie project about the sexual harassment allegations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The movie was to be based on the 1994 book "Strange Justice," written by then-Wall Street Journal reporters Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson. Mayer now writes for the New Yorker and Abramson writes for the New York Times. News Corp.

News Corp. on Friday filed for the anticipated spinoff of part of its U.S. film, television and sports businesses, a move that could help Chairman Rupert Murdoch boost his company's market value. News Corp., the world's fifth-largest media company, said in late June that it planned to sell as much as 20% of Fox Entertainment Group Inc. to the public. Fox Entertainment's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission didn't disclose how much it hoped to raise in the stock sale.

LONDON - He's hobnobbed with every British prime minister of the last 30 years but says he wields no undue political influence. His scandal-loving tabloids strike fear into the hearts of decision-makers, but he denies ever using his newspapers to advance his commercial interests. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch cast himself as the very model of a modest, upright newspaperman Wednesday, insisting in a London courtroom that any suggestion to the contrary was based on lies and legends.

LONDON — Over 60 years, Rupert Murdoch built a media empire using his properties and their profits not just to break down the doors to the British establishment, but also to control it. So Tuesday's scathing declaration by a British parliamentary committee that Murdoch is "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company" may mark the moment when the once-tamed establishment lost its fear of the country's most powerful...

Providence Equity Partners is selling its stake in online video service Hulu for about $200 million, according to people familiar with the situation. The move is expected to give at least two of Hulu's media company owners — News Corp. and Walt Disney Co. — a greater ownership stake in the rapidly growing online service. It also would make it easier for the partners to achieve a common strategy for the asset without having a restive investor in the mix. The 5-year-old service has more than 2 million paid subscribers to its Hulu Plus offering and about 38 million visitors a month to its free site, which offers catch-up episodes of such popular shows as "Glee," "Revenge" and "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.

LONDON — By turns contrite and defiant, media magnate Rupert Murdoch on Thursday apologized for the phone-hacking scandal that has tarnished his company but then blamed subordinates for covering up the problem and police for failing to investigate it properly. "The buck stops with me," Murdoch said. "I failed. And I'm very sorry about that.... It's going to be a blot on my reputation for the rest of my life. " Had he known the extent of hacking by the News of the World tabloid, he would have "torn the place apart, and we wouldn't be here today," Murdoch testified on his second day before a British judicial inquiry on media ethics, which was spawned by the hacking scandal.

The long tentacles of  Rupert Murdoch'sNews Corp. scandal have ensared many ofBritain's top media figures. The unfolding controversy has now embroiledBritain's culture secretary Jeremy Hunt in what is turning out to be a fight for his political life. This week, Hunt was in damage control mode as he faces allegations about his connections to News Corp. 's takeover bid for BSkyB, the British satellite broadcaster. Hunt -- whose department oversees the arts, media, cultural heritage, sports, the Olympics and more -- is accused of being partial to News Corp.

LONDON - Rupert Murdoch's media empire enjoyed possibly inappropriate contacts with senior British politicians, including the government minister charged with deciding whether to allow Murdoch to take over a lucrative satellite broadcaster, according to evidence at a judicial inquiry Tuesday. James Murdoch, Rupert's son and deputy chief operating officer of News Corp., testified that he had met a dozen times with Prime Minister David Cameron and rubbed elbows with George Osborne, the finance minister, and Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland.

Media giant News Corp. took the unusual step Monday of releasing notes of a conversation between one of its attorneys and former book publisher Judith Regan to show that she made anti-Semitic remarks that led to her firing. Regan, meanwhile, hired Hollywood attorney Bert Fields to deny the allegations and vigorously contest her dismissal. Fields said the firing was the result of a long-running feud between Regan and her boss, Chief Executive Jane Friedman of HarperCollins, a News Corp. unit.

News Corp. agreed to buy Heritage Media Corp. for $1.35 billion in stock and assumed debt, a deal that would swallow News Corp.'s main competition in product promotions in U.S. supermarkets. The Australian media giant said it would pay $20.50 a share for Heritage, a 69% premium to Friday's closing price. News Corp., owner of Fox television, plans to sell Heritage's six television and 24 radio stations. This year, News Corp.'

News Corp.'s board of directors temporarily suspended the voting rights of a portion of shares held by non-U.S. citizens to comply with U.S. law, according to a regulatory filing. The media conglomerate Wednesday suspended the half of the voting rights of foreign citizens who hold Class B shares in News Corp. The company said its board took the action to comply with U.S. law, which limits foreign ownership of broadcast licenses to no more than 25%. The decision would affect Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz, who holds more than 56 million Class B shares.

James Murdoch's resignation as chairman of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting comes ahead of a government report expected to be critical of his handling of the ethics scandal at News Corp.'s British tabloids. Murdoch, in announcing his decision Tuesday, alluded to the ongoing investigations into alleged phone hacking and police bribery by News Corp.'s the Sun and the now-closed News of the World. Problems at the tabloids last summer derailed the media conglomerate's plans to take control of Britain's dominant pay-TV provider, in which it holds a 39% interest, with a $12-billion purchase of all outstanding BSkyB shares.