] HipMojo.com » Peter Chernin: News Corp’ is Most Powerful Media Company on the Web - Is It?

Peter Chernin: News Corp’ is Most Powerful Media Company on the Web - Is It?

When News Corp. bought a 51% controlling interest in Jamba from Verisign, News Corp. President and COO - and potential heir apparent to Rupert Murdoch - stated that News Corporation was the “most powerful media company on the Web.”

And you know what, it is hard to argue with Mr. Chernin.  In just over 18 months, through a blitzkrieg acquisition plan highlighted by hail marry offers to both IGN Entertainment and MySpace, News Corp. is arguably the strongest media company online.  Who else can even come close?

Let’s see:

Disney was an initial player online, between its acquisition of Infoseek, but as the love/hate relationship with go.com shows, Disney’s online business is nowhere near a reflection of its offline prowess.  One of its crown jewels, of course, remains ESPN.com, the largest sports site online.

Viacom has made its own attempt in the past few years, through a myriad of acquisitions including Neopets, iFilm and others, but it is probably the companies it did not get - namely IGN Entertainment and Myspace - that make it a trailer to News Corp.

Of course, there is Time Warner, who after a disastrous merger with AOL is now experiencing a renaissance of sorts, with its acquisitions of Advertising.com for less that $400 million a few years ago as well as the relaunched, free AOL.com.  While Time Warner was the strongest media company online - and retains a wild card chance of usurping the top spot away from News Corp. once again - I must say, Mr. Chernin is right: few media companies come close to News Corp.

Let’s see if Mr. Murdoch’s executive team, from Peter Chernin down to Ross Levinsohn (FIM’s CEO) and Mark Jung (IGN’s COO) can fend off a resurgent Time Warner and build on their lead.

Disclosure: I was an employee of News Corp. from Sept. 2005-Dec.2005 and the “most powerful media company on the Web”.

Tags: , , , , |
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Sep 25th

One Response to “Peter Chernin: News Corp’ is Most Powerful Media Company on the Web - Is It?”

  1. HipMojo.com - IT, Video, Web, Technology, Gadgets » The Bigger They Are… Says:
    September 25th, 2006 at 1:26 pm

    […] Last week, while his underlings were still harassing me in the legal courts, News Corporation’s COO Peter Chernin comes out and says something that only helps my already strong case.  It was a thing of beauty.  […]

Subscribe:


Leave a Reply

*
To prove that you're not a bot, enter this code
Anti-Spam Image

Subscribe:


« « previous post | next post » »
Admin

Shortcut:
HipMojo.com

Subscribe:

Search Site:

Categories:

Archives:

Blogroll: