company that existed from 1979 to 2013 . for the company split off in 2013 see news corp. news corporation 1211 avenue of the americas headquarters of news corporation former type public industry mass media fate assets split into 21st century fox and news corp successor 21st century fox legal news corp spin off founded 1979 ; 37 years ago 1979 adelaide australia 1 2 november 12 2004 2004 11 12 delaware u.s. 3 founder rupert murdoch defunct june 28 2013 2013 06 28 headquarters new york city new york u.s. area served worldwide key people rupert murdoch chairman and ceo chase carey president & coo products cable network programming filmed entertainment television direct broadcast satellite television publishing and other revenue us 33.706 billion 2012 4 operating income us 2.212 billion 2012 4 net income us 1.179 billion 2012 4 total assets us 50.944 billion 2013 5 us 56.663 billion 2012 6 total equity us 24.684 billion 2012 4 number of employees 47 650 2012 4 subsidiaries list of subsidiaries news corp and 21st century fox website www.newscorp.com the original news corporation or news corp. was an american multinational mass media corporation headquartered in new york city . it was the world s fourth largest media group in 2014 in terms of revenue . 7 8 9 10 11 board members include prominent former spanish prime minister jose maria aznar . 12 news corporation was a publicly traded company listed on the nasdaq . formerly incorporated in adelaide south australia the company was re incorporated under delaware general corporation law after a majority of shareholders approved the move on 12 november 2004 . news corporation was headquartered at 1211 avenue of the americas new york in the newer 1960s 1970s corridor of the rockefeller center complex . on 28 june 2012 rupert murdoch announced that after concerns from shareholders in response to its recent scandals and to unlock even greater long term shareholder value news corporation s assets would be split into two publicly traded companies one oriented towards media and the other towards publishing . the split formally took place on 28 june 2013 ; where the present news corp. was renamed 21st century fox and consists primarily of media outlets while a new news corp was formed to take on the publishing and australian broadcasting assets . its major holdings at the time of the split were news limited a group of newspaper publishers in murdoch s native australia news international a newspaper publisher in the united kingdom whose properties include the times the sun and the now defunct news of the world which was the subject of a phone hacking scandal that led to its closure in july 2011 dow jones & company an american publisher of financial news outlets including the wall street journal the book publisher harpercollins and the fox entertainment group owners of the 20th century fox film studio and the fox broadcasting company one of the united states major television networks . contents 1 history 1.1 moving into the united states 1.2 expansion and consolidation 1.3 development since 2000 1.4 scandals 1.5 split 2 shareholders 3 annual conference 4 political donations 5 corporate governance 6 office of the chairman 7 final holdings 7.1 books 7.2 newspapers 7.3 magazines 7.4 music and radio 7.5 sport 7.6 studios 7.7 tv 7.7.1 broadcast 7.7.2 satellite television 7.7.3 cable 7.8 internet 7.9 other assets 8 see also 9 references 10 external links history edit news corp was created in 1979 by rupert murdoch as a holding company for news limited . news limited was created in 1923 in adelaide ; subsequently the controlling interest was bought by the herald and weekly times . in 1949 sir keith murdoch took control of the adelaide news . when he died in 1952 his son rupert inherited a controlling interest in an adelaide afternoon tabloid the news . news limited operates today as news corporation s australian brand the australian operating out of surry hills in sydney . moving into the united states edit news ltd. made its first acquisition in the united states in 1973 when it purchased the san antonio express news . soon afterwards it founded the national star a supermarket tabloid and in 1976 it purchased the new york post . in 1981 news corp bought half of the movie studio 20th century fox buying the other half in 1984 . in 1985 news corp announced it was buying the metromedia group of stations setting the stage for the launch of a fourth u.s. commercial broadcasting television network . on 4 september 1985 murdoch became a naturalized citizen to satisfy the legal requirement that only united states citizens could own american television stations . in 1986 the metromedia deal closed and the fox broadcasting company was launched . this network known on screen as fox can now be picked up in over 96 % of u.s. households . expansion and consolidation edit in 1986 and 1987 news corp through subsidiary news international moved to adjust the production process of its british newspapers over which the printing unions had long maintained a highly restrictive grip . 13 a number of senior australian media moguls were brought into murdoch s powerhouse including john dux who was managing director of the south china morning post . this led to a confrontation with the printing unions national graphical association and society of graphical and allied trades . the move of news international s london operation to wapping in the east end resulted in nightly battles outside the new plant . delivery vans and depots were frequently and violently attacked . 13 ultimately the unions capitulated . citation needed by 1992 news corp had amassed huge clarification needed debts which forced it to sell many of the american magazine interests it had acquired in the mid 1980s to k iii communications as well spinning off long held australian magazines interests as pacific magazines . much of this debt came from its stake in the sky television satellite network in the uk which incurred massive losses in its early years of operation which like many of its business interests was heavily subsidised with profits from its other holdings until it was able to force citation needed rival satellite operator bsb to accept a merger on its terms in 1990 . the merged company bskyb has dominated the british pay tv market since . in 1993 news corp acquired a 63.6 % stake of the hong kong based star tv satellite network for over 500 million followed by the purchase of the remaining 36.4 % in july 1995 . 14 15 murdoch declared that 16 telecommunications have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere ... satellite broadcasting makes it possible for information hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state controlled television channels . in 1995 the fox network became the object of scrutiny from the fcc when it was alleged that its australian base made murdoch s ownership of fox illegal . the fcc however ruled in murdoch s favour stating that his ownership of fox was in the public s best interests . it was also noted that the stations themselves were owned by a separate company whose chief shareholder was a u.s. citizen murdoch although nearly all of the stations equity was controlled by news corp. in the same year news corp announced a deal with mci communications to develop a major news website as well as funding a conservative news magazine the weekly standard . in the same year news corp launched the foxtel pay television network in australia in a partnership with telstra and publishing and broadcasting limited . in 1996 fox established the fox news channel a 24 hour cable news station to compete against ted turner s rival channel cnn . in 1999 news corp significantly expanded its music holdings in australia by acquiring the controlling share in a leading australian based label michael gudinski s mushroom records merging it with already held festival records to create festival mushroom records fmr . both festival and fmr were managed by rupert murdoch s son james murdoch for several years . also in 1999 the economist reported that news corp paid comparatively lower taxes and newscorp investments specifically had made 11.4 billion 20.1 billion in profits over the previous 11 years but had not paid net corporation tax . it also reported that after an examination of the available accounts newscorp could normally have been expected to pay corporate tax of approximately 350 million . the article explained that in practice the corporation s complex structure international scope and use of offshore tax havens allowed news corporation to pay minimal clarification needed taxes . 17 18 development since 2000 edit in late 2003 news corp acquired a 34 % stake in directv group formerly hughes electronics operator of the largest american satellite tv system from general motors for us 6 billion . directv was sold to liberty media in 2008 in exchange for its holding in news international . in january 2005 shortly after reincorporation in the united states news corporation announced that it was buying out fox entertainment group . 19 the manoeuvre delisted fox from the new york stock exchange ; fox traded on the nyse under the ticker fox . 20 in july 2005 in one of the company s first major internet purchases news corporation purchased the social networking website myspace for 580 million . 21 22 news corporation had beat out viacom by offering a higher price for the website 23 and the purchase was seen as a good investment at the time . 23 of the 580 million purchase price approximately 327 million has been attributed to the value of myspace according to the financial adviser fairness opinion . 24 within a year myspace had tripled in value from its purchase price . 23 in february 2007 murdoch announced at the mcgraw hill media summit that fox would launch a new business news channel later in the year which would compete directly against rival network cnbc . murdoch explained that the channel would be more business friendly than cnbc because he felt that they leap on every scandal or what they think is a scandal . 25 in july 2007 news corp. reached a deal to acquire dow jones & company owners of the wall street journal for 5 billion . 26 despite cnbc already having a contract with dow jones to provide content and services to the network fox officially launched the fox business channel on 15 october 2007 . alexis glick the network s original morning show host and vice president of business news indicated that its lawyers had reviewed the details of dow jones contract with cnbc but noted that it would still actively use other dow jones properties . 27 28 in 2009 news corp established newscore a global wire service set up to provide news stories to all of news corp s journalistic outlets . 29 in 2010 due to the fijian government s requirement that the country s media outlet must be 90 % owned by fiji nationals news corporation sold 90 % of their stake in their fijian newspapers fiji times nai lalakai and shanti dut to motibhai group of companies . 30 in late february 2011 news corp officially put the now struggling myspace up for sale which was estimated to be worth 50 200 million . 31 losses from the last quarter of 2010 were 156 million over double of the previous year which dragged down the otherwise strong results of parent news corp. its struggles were attributed to the growth of the competing social network facebook . 32 33 the deadline for bids 31 may 2011 passed without any above the reserve price of 100 million being submitted . 34 the rapid deterioration in myspace s business during the most recent quarter had deterred many potent suitors . 32 later