Murdoch WILL pay more for Time Warner but he's got to see the books
It didn’t take long! Rupert Murdoch is willing to pay more for Time Warner , Bloomberg reported last night citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”
Murdoch: 'Ready to pay more'
The 83-year-old tycoon is undeterred after an $80 billion offer from Twenty-first Century Fox was rebuffed in an initial offer for the media company. Time Warner shares have since soared.
But an offer higher than $85 depends on Time Warner engaging in talks and opening its books to Fox, according to one source , who told Bloomberg Murdoch hadn’t been directly involved in discussions.
Fox calculates the combined company could achieve more than $1 billion in cost savings, eliminating overlapping back office, human resources, sales and information technology operations.
That figure could go higher once Fox is able to conduct due diligence on Time Warner, the informant told Bloomberg.
By making a higher offer, Fox would seek to pull in Time Warner assets such as the TNT and TBS cable networks and premium channel HBO to add to its own stable of media properties, including the Fox movie studio, broadcast network and 24-hour news channel.
HBO is seen as a major attraction and is being valued at $20 billion, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter.
Time Warner leapt 17 percent to $83.13 at the close yesterday in New York. New York-based Fox fell 6.2 percent to $33.
A Time Warner statement said “The board is confident that continuing to execute its strategic plan will create significantly more value for the company and its stockholders and is superior to any proposal that Twenty-First Century Fox is in a position to offer.”
In a separate statement, Fox confirmed it made a formal proposal and said it’s not in current talks with Time Warner.
To appease antitrust regulators, the companies would sell CNN, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, since Fox already has Fox News. CNN could fetch about $6 billion in a sale, the person said.