I like Jason Kilar a lot.  He’s done an amazing job at Hulu.  We are big fans of Hulu and as a content provider, a partner to boot… but when I read some of the things he says and try to reconcile it all with his overlords’ feelings on paid content vs. free, ad-supported content, I wonder, is he on borrowed time? continue reading...

This has to be one of the best lines I’ve read in a while, from SAI’s Nicholas Carlson’s piece on succession planning at News Corp.

Know what happens when a boxing referee slips between the ropes and out of the ring in the middle of the match? continue reading...

The Four Horsemen

Some of you might recall that after eUniverse - renamed Intermix - launched MySpace, it got into some problems with the SEC and its board forced CEO Brad Greenspan to resign. Greenspan remained a big shareholder, but the Board brought in Richard Rosenblatt to run the company. Rosenblatt is the executive (with an impressive track record in social media dating back to the late 1990s) who ended up selling Intermix to News Corp. for $580M. Rosenblatt orchestrated the deal with his counterpart over at News Corp, Ross Levinsohn, who was responsible for building up News Corp.’s digital strategy for Chairman Rupert Murdoch. continue reading...

Interesting rundown of News Corp.’s business units in, of all places, the Wall Street Journal, and each one’s contribution to the top and botton line.

You will see that “Other” boasts revenue of over $1B with a loss of $150M.  Fox Interactive Media, which serves as the umbrella of the web properties is in that unit and in 2007 is slated to do $1B in revenue… up from earlier forecasts (set in 2006) of about $500M.  Clearly, things are going in the right direction for FIM, and that’s not surprising given the strength of News Corp.’s franchises and MySpace’s staggering size and continued growth. continue reading...

On May 1st, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch unleashed an unsolicited takeover of Dow Jones for $5B, a 67% premium attempt.  A lot of people cringed at the notion of Murdoch unleashing his mojo on DJ’s venerable brands Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, but ultimately, few stepped up to the plate.

Sure, Pearson and GE considered it, briefly, but then they balked, even though a combined News Corp./DJ would be a direct onslaught to the former’s The Economist and the latter’s CNBC. continue reading...

Brad Greenspan, the former founder of Intermix, is trying to derail Rupert Murdoch’s $5B bid for Dow Jones.

I came across this on Paid Content, here’s his open letter to shareholders, in it, he concedes: continue reading...