News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday that the “harsh” coverage of his attempts to purchase Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, almost killed the deal.
Peter Lauria of The New York Post wrote, “‘I spent the better part of the past three months enduring criticism normally leveled at a genocidal tyrant,’Â Murdoch said. ‘If I didn’t think [Dow Jones] was such a perfect fit – with such unlimited potential to grow on its own and in tandem with News Corp.’s assets – believe me, I would have walked away.'”
Lauria also added, “Murdoch said there are huge opportunities ‘to pair the electronic assets of Dow Jones with the digital assets of News Corp,’ which are already strong performers. News Corp.’s digital unit Fox Interactive media posted its first full-year profit in fiscal 2007, and revenue at social-networking site MySpace could be more than $800 million in 2008.
“Murdoch said execs were currently debating the future of the Journal’s subscription-based Web site. ‘It’s expensive in the short term, but in the long term it could be a wonderful thing to do,’ Murdoch said of making WSJ.com a free site.”
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