News Corporation becomes largest media empire in the world

John Byrne
Raw Story
Oct. 23, 2007

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has become the largest capitalized media corporation in the world, surpassing rival Time Warner, $67.79 billion to $67.32 billion.

At close Friday, News Corp. was first at $67.79 billion, followed by Time Warner ($67.32 billion), Disney ($65.62 billion), Sony ($45.29 billion), Viacom ($26.98 billion) and CBS ($21.11 billion), according to Hollywood Reporter.

Murdoch recently bought the Wall Street Journal and started the Fox Business Network to compete with CNBC.

News Corp's success this year has more to do with losses at rival firms, the paper notes: Time Warner shares have lost nearly 17% this year; Disney has lost 1.4%.

Among the corporation's largest and most notable holdings include: Fox News Channel, Fox Business Channel, 20th Century Fox, TV Guide, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, Harpercollins, FX, Showtime, BSkyB, The London Sun, The London Sunday Times, The Weekly Standard and more than 20 newspapers in Australia, where the company began.

On the web, it owns MySpace and Photobucket.

It also has large holdings in the National Geographic Channel (67%) and owns 25% of the Australian Associated Press.

If gaged by annual revenue, News. Corp lags behind other media giants. Sony pulled a whopping $70.3 billion last year, Time Warner $43.7 billion, Disney $34.29 billion, News Corp. $28.66 billion, CBS $14.32 billion and Viacom $11.47 billion.

Read a full list of the company's holdings here.