News Corp

Rupert Murdoch goes home next week to Adelaide, the South Australian capital where he inherited control of two newspapers 38 years ago and began building one of the largest media empires in the world. Murdoch is not returning for sentimental reasons--he has spent most of his adult life avoiding the sleepy port city of "sheep and churches." But Adelaide is where News Corp.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is dusting off plans for an initial public stock offering of its satellite TV arm, Sky Global Networks, as talks to buy top U.S. satellite TV group DirecTV near a conclusion, an industry source said Thursday. The source said, however, that it was uncertain whether the delayed public offering would scrape through in the first quarter as Murdoch had hoped, and the exact timing will depend on when the DirecTV talks are wrapped up and when market conditions improve.

With MySpace.com, another Rupert Murdoch gamble is starting to pay off. News Corp. on Wednesday said the social networking website that it acquired to great skepticism in 2005 had turned profitable and was bringing in revenue faster than expected. MySpace's sales in the latest quarter tripled from a year earlier, making the site a highlight of its parent's earnings report. News Corp. reported net income of $822 million in its fiscal second quarter, down from $1.

MCI Communications Corp. and News Corp. on Wednesday announced a joint venture to provide on-line services and said British Telecommunications may take a stake too. It is the first major linkup since MCI, the nation's second-largest long-distance firm, announced plans in May to invest $2 billion in Rupert Murdoch's media empire. The venture will include all the companies' existing on-line operations, they said, including News Corp.'s Delphi Internet Services Corp., which has 100,000 customers.

The possible marriage of DirecTV and Sky Global Networks is stacking up to be a complex affair, with a wedding party that includes a guest from just about every walk of media life and then some. Joining the two satellite television companies at the altar are a leading auto maker, a defense contractor-turned satellite service provider, an international entertainment titan, a cable and technology giant and the world's largest software company.

In a risky gambit that could reap huge dividends, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said Wednesday that he will intensify his assault on the Japanese television market with the introduction of a dazzling new array of digital satellite broadcasting services. In April, Murdoch's Hong Kong-based StarTV ushered in a new era of foreign broadcasting in Japan with the launch of a 24-hour channel called StarPlus.

WebMD Corp., an Internet health information company that has lost more than $2 billion, will take a $275-million charge in its fourth quarter to end two ventures with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. News Corp. will take back WebMD's 50% stake in the Health Network cable channel, drop plans to promote the Internet company overseas and reduce advertising and promotion services for WebMD to $205 million from $700 million over 10 years.

Tribune Co. has reached agreement in principle to sell Newsday to News Corp. for about $580 million in what would be a joint venture, a source familiar with the matter said Monday. Under the terms of the deal, Newsday would be part of a joint venture with News Corp.'s New York Post and other News Corp. assets. News Corp would own most of the company; Tribune would keep a stake of less than 5%. The pending deal was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.