News Corp. names new company 21st Century Fox
NEW YORK News Corp. (NWS) says the name of the entertainment company that will survive when its newspapers are spun off into a different company will be 21st Century Fox.
That plays off its movie studio, 20th Century Fox, for the current century. Previously News Corp. planned to call the movie and TV show company Fox Group.
CEO Rupert Murdoch said the new name draws on the rich heritage of the movie studio while hinting at the innovation and dynamism of its properties.
Here's how the split will work:
- Newspapers, book publishing and information services such as Dow Jones Newswires will be part of the publishing company. The 20th Century Fox movie studio, the Fox broadcast TV network and the Fox News Channel will be part of the media and entertainment company.
- Current News Corp. shareholders will get shares in each company, but how many shares and how much each entity will be worth have yet to be determined. Both companies will trade publicly, under different stock tickers.
- The new News Corp. company will be spun off and the existing News Corp. will be renamed 21st Century Fox. The new News Corp. will have $2.56 billion in cash and no debt. That amount is to include a payment of $1.82 billion from what will become 21st Century Fox. Another $741 million is already held in cash by the businesses to be spun off.
- Rupert Murdoch will be chairman of both companies and CEO of the media and entertainment company. Robert Thomson, former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, will become CEO of the publishing company. Murdoch will end up controlling both companies through the nearly 40 percent of Class B voting shares he controls through a family trust.
- News Corp.'s board unanimously approved the split, but it will need to approve a more formal proposal. The deal is also subject to shareholder and numerous regulatory approvals.
- News Corp. plans to hold a special meeting of its shareholders in the first half of 2013 and expects the deal to be completed in mid-2013.
The publishing company will still be called News Corp.