Big changes in the media as major offers pour in

By Andy Goldberg May 5, 2007, 12:12 GMT

San Francisco - Some of the biggest names in online and offline media could soon have new owners after a flurry of recent offers. The deals involve a who's-who of some of the most powerful corporations and best known media brands in the world.

True to his pioneering form, it was kicked off by Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch with an unsolicited 5-billion-dollar bid for Dow Jones, the company which owns The Wall Street Journal.

On Friday, two other mega-deals hit the headlines. Murdoch's New York Post reported that Microsoft was eyeing Yahoo in a deal that could be worth a staggering 50 billion dollars, while Canadian publishing empire Thomson unveiled a 15-billion-dollar bid for Reuters, the British financial and news information service.

Editor & Publisher magazine called the situation Friday a 'media frenzy.'

Each deal has unique characteristics driving the buyers and sellers. But together they signify a media world in flux as the internet presents new challenges and opportunities.

The 5-billion-dollar bid for Dow Jones could seem like a massive overpricing for a company whose stock market valuation prior to the bid was barely half of that. But folded into Murdoch's News Corp, it could turn out to be a steal.

Rick Edmonds, a media analyst at Poynter.org, the leading authority on online journalism, believes there are three main factors driving the Dow Jones deal.

First is Murdoch's well-known penchant for buying up trophy properties like he did with The London Times in 1981. His US newspaper holdings by contrast are dominated by the New York Post, a feisty tabloid that doesn't exactly exude class.

Second, the resources of Dow Jones, with its legions of business reporters and unparalleled reputation for financial reporting would prove a boon for Murdoch's plans to expand his Fox News cable TV channel by adding a separate business channel.

Thirdly, Murdoch has proved prescient in timing his entry into digital media as evidenced by his purchase last year for almost 600 million dollars of the explosive social networking site MySpace.com.

Many analysts scoffed at what seemed like a high price at the time, but are now eating their words. The Wall Street Journal is undoubtedly one of the world's leading online newspapers, and could easily become the premier international site for financial news, analysts say.

Murdoch himself outlined this strategy in a rare interview with The New York Times earlier this week, suggesting that globalization would make The Journal even more important internationally with millions of people in India and China representing a huge opportunity, not to be squandered.

Reuters could offer Thomson a similarly attractive opportunity for expansion. The Canadian publishing giant sold off most of its newspapers before the internet cut into readership habits, in order to concentrate on business publishing and the supply of financial information to institutional investors. Buying Reuters would allow Thompson to offer a full range of financial service information and catapult it into a powerful position in the world financial markets.

There was less consensus however about the reported Microsoft- Yahoo link up. The offer, which has not been confirmed or denied by either of the two companies, is seen as a way for both of them to buttress themselves against the threat of Google.

But even a joint online effort would fail to challenge Google's dominance in online advertising. It might actually harm Yahoo's new advertising programme, which is expected to start improving the company's performance this quarter, analysts say.

At the same time, it could take the focus away from Microsoft's other key areas, like productivity software, where Google is also trying to make inroads.

Dana Cimillua of the Wall Street Journal called the proposed merger 'a desperation deal' while Karsten Weide, programme director for digital media and entertainment at IDC was even more blunt.

'I don't think it would work,' he said.