Media Making a Mark in the Markets

PUBLISHED: Jul 17 2014 @ 14:19 | Comments (0) | More info about Lou Gutheil

A spike in activities in the media sector has been leaving its mark on the stock markets today, as it appears that we may be headed toward a new round of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures led by no less than media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

ITV’s share price (LSE:ITV) opened at 201.00, up from 183.80.
Time Warner’s share price (NYSE:TWX) opened at 84.13, up from 83.13, which was 17% higher than the previous close.
Starz (NASDAQ:STRZA) is trading at 29.49, up 1.87% from yesterday’s close.
Discovery (NASDAQ:DISCA) is trading up at 85.20, up more than 2% from yesterday’s close of 83.50.
AMC (NASDAQ:AMCX) is trading similarly at 64.86, up almost 2% from its 63.61 close
BSkyB shares (LSE:BSY) closed the day up 0.84% at 897.50
Liberty Global shares (NASDAQ:LBTYK) are trading at 43.17, up 0.54% from 42.94.

It’s Complicated

Liberty Global, is the owner of Virgin Media.
Liberty has just acquired a 6.4% state in BSkyB.
Liberty acquired the 6.4% share in BSkyB from ITV.
Rupert Murdoch is the major shareholder in BSkyB.
Murdoch is the Chairman & CEO of News Corp and 21st Century Fox
21st Century Fox has made an unsolicited offer to purchase Time Warner for $80 billion.

Don’t Worry, It ~~Could~~ Probably Will Get Worse

Rupert Murdoch owns Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland.
BSyB has the acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland on its radar
Time Warner has rejected Murdoch’s offer.
Murdoch does not like rejection, so he will likely try again.
Time Warner owns CNN.
If Murdoch ultimately acquires Time Warner, speculation is that he will sell CNN, hold on to the rest, and bid on “every major sporting event he can get his hands on.“

Time Warner CEO, Jeffrey Bewkes, was quoted as saying, “Quite simply, the board concluded that continuing to execute our strategic plan and our business plans will create significantly more value for the company and our shareholders, and that that’s superior to any proposal that Fox is in a position to offer.” That sounds oddly familiar – I think someone from Shire made a similar remark recently. If you’ve been paying attention at all, you know how that turned out.

Whatever happens, we’re all going to have to have to sort it out after the dust settles. All I know for sure at this point is that, if Mr. Murdoch is going to do something (again) to completely disrupt the media industry, he better hurry up. He’s 83 years old.

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