News Corp Investors Raise Concerns About Proposed Merger With Fox

An activist investor escalated its pressure on News Corp on Sunday, asking it to reconsider a proposal by Rupert Murdoch to combine the two parts of his media business, News Corp and Fox.

The investor, Irenic Capital Management, said in a letter to News Corp, which was viewed by The New York Times, that it might vote to oppose the merger, arguing that the proposed deal is likely to undervalue News Corp.

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“Every investor I’ve spoken to in the last 10 years on News Corp has expressed that they think the company is way too complicated and should be simplified by selling assets or spinning off assets,” said Craig Huber, media analyst at Huber Research Partners.

“Putting the two (News Corp and Fox) together makes no sense to us.”

In October, media mogul Rupert Murdoch proposed to reunite his media empire by combining News Corp and Fox Corp nearly a decade after the companies split. The companies said they had formed special committees to evaluate the proposal.

“Fox Business may benefit from greater integration with the Wall Street Journal and some of Dow Jones’ other properties, but it is highly debatable whether the benefits from such an association flow both ways,” Irenic said in the letter.