News Corp splits and AMPLIFY-ies

[fjtorres]

News corp. is splitting, sending its name and $2 billion-plus cash out and away from their media businesses, now renamed FOX group.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/murd...unit-1C8775300

And then, the first move of the new old-publishing company is AMPLIFY, yet another Android tablet. This one built around an educational content subscription service.

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ga...ools-1C8754562

News Corp. got into the education business in mid-2012 with a new division called Amplify, which has been developing content and tools to help bring technology to K-12 classrooms. Yet the decision to launch a tablet was a bit of a risk, as other well-heeled companies, from Apple to Amazon, are also eyeing the education space.

Amplify's approach is to provide an end-to-end solution. The team claims that a class equipped with Amplify tablets will not only have access to rich content and lessons, but will be easier to manage, thanks to built-in tools for tracking students and personalizing content.

Direct communication between teacher and student can make it easier to catch up with faltering kids, and a variety of games and Internet-era interactions (buttons and emoticons) make the platform engaging for students.

[teh603]

Makes it harder for people to detect their circular referencing.

[calvin-c]

I suspect this is the bigger reason:
"News Corp. also said Friday that the new publishing company would not have to pay for any further legal costs or civil claims related to the phone hacking scandal involving its British newspapers."

Particularly the civil claims. I haven't heard whether the victims are suing News Corp or not but I'd think they were-and those claims could run into the billions if everybody they victimized sued them.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

I suspect this is the bigger reason:
"News Corp. also said Friday that the new publishing company would not have to pay for any further legal costs or civil claims related to the phone hacking scandal involving its British newspapers."

Particularly the civil claims. I haven't heard whether the victims are suing News Corp or not but I'd think they were-and those claims could run into the billions if everybody they victimized sued them.

They have been paying out all along. Billions are not indicated.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

I suspect this is the bigger reason:
"News Corp. also said Friday that the new publishing company would not have to pay for any further legal costs or civil claims related to the phone hacking scandal involving its British newspapers."

Particularly the civil claims. I haven't heard whether the victims are suing News Corp or not but I'd think they were-and those claims could run into the billions if everybody they victimized sued them.

Isn't it more likely that newspapers are ailing and other media thriving? It seems far more likely that the newspapers are dragging down the other components and this frees them from poor credit ratings, raises EBITA, etc?

What's amazing is that they took so long to do this.

[fjtorres]

Pearson is merging Penguin with Random House as a way to get out of consumer publishing. Murdock looked for a merger partner without success so they had to go this way. The spinoff's cash kitty is so they can work a merger or other kind of deal. It's enough to buy B&N, for example...