Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation yesterday unveiled plans for keeping potential take-over bidders at bay, following a move by Liberty Media last week which saw it raising its stake in the group from 9% to 17%.
According to today’s Financial Times, the plans, which were approved at last weekends board meeting, would see News Corp’s shareholders being offered discounted stock under an 8-for-1 rights issue in response to potential take-over threats.
News corp acted after it feared that Liberty, headed by John Malone, could emerge as the group’s largest shareholder, overtaking the Murdoch family’s 29.5% controlling stake.
Analysts said, by not taking these steps, Liberty could end up with 49% of News Corp’s voting interest by swapping its 421.6 million Class A ordinary shares for Class B voting stock.
The group cannot stop Liberty from increasing its voting stake to 17% under last week’s share-swap but a rights issue would be triggered if Liberty acquired a further 1% of the company or any other group gained more than 15% of the voting stock.
Yesterday, officials at Liberty, told the Financial Times, it was ‘a News Corp ally’ and was not planning a hostile approach on the group.
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