Word: murdochized
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...which Sony paid $3.4 billion for Columbia Pictures, many Americans began to fear that the country's cultural heritage was being auctioned off, bit by bit. Universal is the fourth of Hollywood's seven major studios to be acquired by foreign companies: 20th Century Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch's Australia-based News Corp., and MGM/UA was taken over earlier last month by Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti. That leaves only three major studios in American hands: Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros...
During the past few years, however, as one media giant after another merged with a powerful partner, Wasserman apparently became convinced that MCA needed to make a strategic alliance to gain King Kong-like size and access to hoards of cash. Capital Cities bought ABC, General Electric acquired NBC, Murdoch bought Fox, and Time Inc. acquired Warner Communications. As Wasserman reportedly told an MCA shareholder last year, "We're a 200-lb. gorilla in a game with 1,000-lb. gorillas. We've got to become a 1,000-lb. gorilla or get out of the game...
...Murdoch, the son of a newspaperman, professes to love print -- "It's going to be around a long time after me, I hope" -- but concedes that his vision of the 21st century has more to do with cathode rays and satellites than with ink and paper. "Certainly in the medium future it appears there will be more growth in TV than in global print," he says. "We are focusing our expansion in electronics until we've got a better balance in our portfolio...
What is the optimal balance? Murdoch says he has no target in mind. But even in Eastern Europe, where he invested "a tiny $4 million" in two Hungarian publications and is making a profit, he will pursue print ventures only if he can find partners. "Nothing on our own," he vows. "You don't get in in a big way, because there is no money there and the situation is totally competitive." The ideal newspaper investment, he says, is "the security of a monopoly." He has the same goal in television. Having attained it after a fashion in Britain...
PRESS: Rupert Murdoch proves he has nine lives...