Cuban: Murdoch got a bargain

Billionaire Mark Cuban, known in the business journalism world as the backer of the ShareSleuth.com web site, tells Lloyd Grove of Portfolio that he believes that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch got a bargain when he agreed to purchase Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, for $5 billion.

In a wide-ranging Q&A interview, Cuban said, “He got a great bargain. The W.S.J., brand can be applied to all of his business operations. The Fox Business Channel can be the Wall Street Journal Channel and gain immediate credibility.

“As far as how to integrate them, I have no idea, and Rupert doesn’t need my advice. There are things I know and things I don’t know. I don’t know the internals of Fox, so there is no reason to speculate.”

Later, in response to criticism by Forbes.com columnist Gary Weiss that investigative business journalism web site ShareSleuth had been a failure, Cuban said, “Gary Weiss is a nice guy, and I actually like checking out and reading his blog. We agree on more than we disagree on, but Gary’s commenting on Sharesleuth is nothing more than trying to get his name in the paper or a magazine somewhere. Sharesleuth is doing everything it has set out to do. It is there to find companies that are not what they say they are. It is an approach that is not based on having to publish to a schedule or within a number of words. We can spend a year researching a company and write or not write, at our discretion. That freedom alone makes it a success. And as far as my profits on the site, I’ve more than covered my costs with trade ideas brought to me by Chris.

“Our emphasis is not on the companies that will make me the most money; it’s on covering the companies that aren’t who they say they are.”

Read more here.