News Corp to be split into two companies

The big media news this morning was that News Corp's board has approved a plan to split the company into two, one for its slow-growth newspaper and publishing assets and another for its money-making film and TV assets.

For the UK, this would mean that The Sun and The Times would be owned by the first company, while the 39,1% stake in BSkyB would be a part of the second company (let's call that one "Fox Corporation"). Although not the driving force behind the split, this could, at least theoretically, make a future acquisition of the remaining parts of BSkyB easier.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/28/news-corp-split-announcement-live

The Murdoch family is retaining its controlling stake in both though right? Not much would change in terms of the fears of a Murdoch media monopoly. Unless they sold off the publishing arm...

That will depend on the outcome of the Ofcom inquiry, which could result in News Corp having to sell some (or all) of their shareholding in BSkyB.