CARLSBAD, Calif. -(Dow Jones)- News Corp. (NWS) Chairman Rupert Murdoch predicted Wednesday that activist investor Carl Icahn’s proxy fight to control Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) will fail, but it will “make him a few hundred million dollars.”
Icahn recently proposed a slate of directors to run against Yahoo’s current board after the Internet company rejected Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) $44 billion bid to buy Yahoo.
“Icahn? That’s not serious. It’s just a lot of helpful noise,” Murdoch said during an onstage question and answer session Wednesday at the All Things D conference. “If I were a director of Yahoo I wouldn’t be worried.”
Murdoch also said that at one point, Yahoo and his company tried to work out their own deal. He said the two companies talked about adding MySpace, News Corp.’s social network, to Yahoo’s portal. But it never came to fruition, he said.
Even without the Yahoo deal, Murdoch said News Corp.’s Internet advertising revenues haven’t suffered. He said News Corp. is likely to pass $1 billion in revenues within the next three to four years. What gives him optimism is “we have some big advertisers come in over the last few months,” among other developments, he said.
Murdoch also heaped praise on Google Inc. (GOOG), whose dominance of the Internet ad revenues was the impetus behind Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo.
He called Google “the greatest company in the world,” and the reason why Microsoft is worried. “They see the danger of Google turning on them,” he said. “Yahoo has a hard job ahead to just holding onto their” search market share.
Turning to newspapers, Murdoch predicted that many have a limited future, perhaps as little as 30 years given how their readers and advertisers are turning to the Internet.
What will be left are major national papers, like The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, while the traditional local daily will become Internet-only, he said.
News Corp. owns Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and this newswire.
By Ben Charny
Dow Jones Newswires
415-765-8230
ben.charny@dowjones.com
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