Posted on 02/23/2010 9:08:37 PM PST by STARWISE
Rotana Media, the broadcaster and music group owned by Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said it had agreed to sell a $70m stake to News Corp, Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire.
Rotana said on Tuesday that News Corp had agreed to buy a 9.09 per cent stake with an option to take this up to 18.18 per cent.
The move will mark News Corp’s most significant investment so far in the Middle East, where faster GDP growth, a young population and maturing advertising markets have begun to draw US and European media groups facing slow growth in their home markets.
”This is a qualitative leap not just for Rotana but for the whole Arab world,” Prince Alwaleed told a press conference. ”We are set to gain deep experience from News Corp ... on television, movie production and technology,” he said. ”They own MySpace ... We can learn from this, the new media field.”
The acquisition will also tie the Murdoch family closer to one of their most important shareholders.
Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holdings owns 7 per cent, or 56m shares, of News Corp’s class B stock and is the largest shareholder outside the Murdoch family.
The prince is not on News Corp’s board of directors, but last month anointed James Murdoch, head of News Corp’s European and Asian operations, as his father’s eventual successor.
“If he [Rupert Murdoch] doesn’t appoint him, I’ll be the first one to nominate him to be the successor of Mr Rupert Murdoch, God forbid if something happens to him,” the prince told Charlie Rose, a US television interviewer.
Rotana, which owns a variety of media assets from an online music video on demand site modelled on News Corp’s Hulu joint venture to a large library of music from the region, already shows programming from News Corp’s Fox channels in Saudi Arabia through its free-to-air television network.
An investment in Rotana has been under discussion for some time and many expected a deal to be done last autumn. One person familiar with the deal described it as ”small but symbolic”.
The decision to invest follows meetings between Mr Murdoch and Prince Alwaleed in New York in January, when the pair discussed a “future potential alliance with News Corp”, according to a statement on the Kingdom Holdings website. The day-to-day relationship between News Corp and Rotana is likely to be managed by James Murdoch’s team, however.
News Corp declined to comment.
"Had". Even you say it. Do you despise all your friends that conquered addictions, too?
I like Beck’s talent. I hope he never drops his sense of humor. I like his deep studies. But a single fly spoils the ointment. [Proverbs]
When someone feels betrayed, he or she will attempt to exploit every weakness. He or she will ridicule a boor for being boring, or a funny guy for not being serious enough. That’s the way people are.
Beck’s main problem is that he’s alienating his base. He might want to draw in other people, but at some point, when you favor newcomers over those who fought on your behalf, the newcomers don’t trust you and your former friends feel betrayed. My two cents.
Mark Levin:
Mark Levin to Beck: Stop dividing us
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125948
Poll — 58% of Republicans question Obama’s Constitutional Qualification
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0709/58_of_GOP_not_suredont_beleive_Obama_born_in_US.html
[I agree that a KOS poll isn’t the most accurate, but it’s the only one I know of reg. republican %.]
If I could advise Beck, it would be — quit ticking off conservatives and sounding like an after-birther. If you have nothing nice to say ... you know the rest.
They have been tacking left for the past 6 months or so. I’m watching a lot less. Pretty much get my news from the internet these days.
Somehow I knew it would be the birther issue when I started reading your post.
Levin is an ass. He's berates the arrogance of Obama in an arrogant way. He's rude and obsequious to people he doesn't agree with.
People here trash Beck because he used to cry on the air when he was telling some very touching stories but yet they don't say anything about Levin's half hour whine fests about his dogs.
I listen to Levin and agree with his analyses on politics.
It's funny. You send me a link to Levin saying we should stick together all the while he's trashing Beck. I see the hypocrisy.
So you knew I was typical of most republicans when you read my post? I’ll take that as a compliment.
“Levin is an ass. He’s berates the arrogance of Obama in an arrogant way. He’s rude and obsequious to people he doesn’t agree with.”
Levin is a SCOURGE. If he has a problem with someone, he is convinced that he must do something about it. I don’t think your problem with Levin speaks well of you.
“People here trash Beck because he used to cry on the air when he was telling some very touching stories ...”
They are just looking for any weakness. You refuse to understand the root of their anger. The root is a feeling of betrayal. We all know Beck is smart enough to know the truth. He’s obviously one of the sharpest knives in the shelf, so he can’t be like others who pretend to have blind spots.
“It’s funny. You send me a link to Levin saying we should stick together all the while he’s trashing Beck. I see the hypocrisy.”
See what you want. If this post doesn’t help you understand, I hope I can convince myself to let you have the last word.
No, I just knew where you were going.
Levin is a SCOURGE. If he has a problem with someone, he is convinced that he must do something about it. I don’t think your problem with Levin speaks well of you.
LOL Okay, I get to hear Levin and you don't know me at all yet you can make an over all judgment about me with one post.
They are just looking for any weakness. You refuse to understand the root of their anger. The root is a feeling of betrayal. We all know Beck is smart enough to know the truth. He’s obviously one of the sharpest knives in the shelf, so he can’t be like others who pretend to have blind spots.
I notice you don't address the hypocrisy of trashing Beck for being emotional and NOT saying anything about Levin's half hour sob stories about his dogs.
See what you want. If this post doesn’t help you understand, I hope I can convince myself to let you have the last word.
So, just end the discussion after one post? Honestly, do think someone should be able to completely change YOUR mind with one post?
We have different views. Your "I'm going to take my ball and go home" because I don't change my mind after one post is immature. If you have a better line of reasoning - post it and we can have a discussion. If you don't (or don't want to) fine. I can live with it.
Sounds straight out of the movie “Network”.
He's exposing the progressives in both parties, and I stand behind him 100%. Progressivism, no matter who uses it, is what's destroying this country.
No. Beck is not alienating his base. I would guess those who are attacking him have their own agenda, because Beck is trying to remind people how great this country once was - and can be again. Why would that be a bad thing?
In my opinion, because of people like Beck, this country may actually have a chance to fix the current administrations disastrous policies, and maybe even a few thousand others that came before them.
"Take this quarter, go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face!"........Uncle Buck
Everyone has a different broadcast style. without those differences in style they don't get to the top. Think about it.
Respect for the way another many runs his show is absolutely necessary. Without that we will be come just a bunch of shouting useless dems.
I’m watching Fox a lot less these days as well. O’Reilly is just terrible now. Hannity is fairly predictable. Beck is educational—but so much doom and gloom! At this point, I’d like to hear solutions! Although, sometimes I feel it’s hopeless—the Congress is populated with many millionaires completely disconnected from the rest of the population. I live in NY and would love to vote Schumer, Gillebrand and Lowey out—but the Republicans have not put up any challengers that I know of! So if you can’t vote them out, what else is left to do!
And just as a reminder on that, Jihad Cyndy McKinney, form Congresscritter from the GA 4th District (adjacent to John Lewis’ GA 5th) jumped up and volunteered to accept the money. Fortunately that got shut down, too.
ROTF!
explains a lot
>> I notice you don’t address the hypocrisy of trashing Beck for being emotional and NOT saying anything about Levin’s half hour sob stories about his dogs.
True.
Levin is using a sledge hammer to crack an egg. He should know better.
How is the relevant to the volume of non-investment funds we send to the Middle East for oil?
Goebbels would be proud. The same liberal Democrats who learned to successfully market Obama in 2008, studied the works of Communist and Nazi propagandists. This is no joke.
Film majors often study the persuasive techniques of Leni Reifenstahl and Sergei Eisenstein (even though thousands of filmmakers have done groundbreaking work since them).
Shepherd Fairey, the man behind the Hope-Change poster campaign lifts iconography and layout completely from Communist (and sometimes Nazi) propaganda works.
What better way to sell Islamic Theocratic superiority to the West but to adopt the West's channels of communication and techniques?
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