Rupert Murdoch, the Australian American media mogul, owner of media giant News Corporation, plans to acquire the US publications Chicago Tribune and LA Times after separating the activities of News Corp. into two separate units, according to The Atlantic.
LA Times recently wrote that Murdoch held preliminary talks with Tribune Co., the owner of the two newspapers. Tribune Co. will soon come out of insolvency, and the two banks and investment fund which will become majority shareholders intend to sell the two newspapers that have financial problems.
News Corporation is the second largest media group worldwide. Murdoch intends to split the operations of the group into two units, television and publications, with him serving as chairman but not CEO.
In late March 2012, News Corp. has come back into the center of a major scandal after last summer aroused public anger due to charges in the UK that some employees have been involved in illegally intercepting telephone conversations and bribed police in hunt of subjects for newspapers.
This time, News Corp. faced charges in Australia and the UK, where lawmakers argue that police should investigate whether the group has promoted the piracy of pay-TV technology.
Murdoch has given up several executive positions after the scandal in Britain where many journalists have used hackers to break into the phones of politicians, celebrities and a dead killed. The phone intercepting scandal prompted News Corp. to close its News of the World unit in July and offer to drop its 7.8 billion pounds ($12.4 billion) bid to get full control of BSkyB, the largest pay-TV company in Britain.
Rupert Murdoch started his media business by acquiring several newspapers in New Zealand and Australia. Later he expanded in the UK by taking over News of the World and The Sun in 1969. His next step was to move to the US where his company News Corporation bought Twentieth Century Fox in 1985, Harper Collins in 1989 and The Wall Street Journal in 2007.
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