NewsCorp has already denied interest in Yahoo!

With the recent talk about NewsCorp's interest in buying Yahoo!, we thought to go back the the company's recent public comments on this. During the 3Q10 conference call, responding to that very question from Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang, CEO Chase Carey essentially denied interest in pursuing Yahoo!. In addition, NewsCorp has failed at managing MySpace so what makes them think they can do a better job with a larger Internet asset. Doesn't make sense to us.


NewsCorp's response on 3Q10 call about acquiring Yahoo!

Chase Carey - News Corporation - President and COO
I think some things like Yahoo! or the press need to have things to write about. But, I think it's we don't need -- we are in now, certainly do not need to make any acquisitions. I think we've a great portfolio of businesses that we can grow aggressively that have a good diversification amongst them. I think what we want to be is make sure we're smart about things, and look at things that are out there and if there's something there, then we should consider it, but we're going to do so in a very disciplined way. I mean, we say -- looked it up, cable channel, we looked at Travel Channel a year ago. We kicked the tires something overseas recently, and, ultimately, they were -- people were looking for values that didn't make sense to us, and I think our general preference is to build businesses, not buy businesses.

It's the way we built the great businesses in News Corporation. It's what we -- where our focus will continue to remain, but if we see something that we think we could acquire it at a very attractive price that fits, I think we'd want to take a look at it. But, we're going to do so in a very disciplined way. We're certainly not out shopping for anything, and, again, I think our priority and focus and our preference is to build businesses. I think we've real opportunities to do that.