Friday 29th of March 2024

the fox and the mouse fan club...

fan one

Or is there another game afoot? Brian Wieser, senior research analyst at Pivotal Research Group, was as surprised as anyone by the Murdochs decision. “There are economies of scale in media,” he said, and the deal is easy to justify on that basis. But the Murdochs had always seemed more interested in legacy and influence than straight financial rationales for deals. “The rationale is less interesting than the catalyst,” he said.

 

What triggered the Murdochs to make this decision? After spending years chasing scale, they may have concluded that scale is a fool’s game when you are competing with behemoths like Apple. The sale has been reported to be worth $40bn-$60bn. Apple has $268bn in its overseas bank accounts.

One former senior Murdoch lieutenant, speaking anonymously, said: “It makes sense on so many levels. With the exception of movies, all of these businesses are monetizing content through advertising, and that business model no longer works. The Murdochs have realized that the subscription businesses are going to kill them.”

The businesses the Murdochs are keeping are also reliant on advertising, of course – including News Corp, the separately listed company that publishes the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US; the Times, Sunday Times and Sun in the UK; and a stable of Australian newspapers.

However, the deal would allow Rupert Murdoch to return to his first love: news. WithFox News and News Corp, Murdoch will continue to have the ear of the political elites in the US, UK and Australia, but with less of the hassle of competing in fields that are increasingly dominated by the tech companies he fears and dislikes.

Also last month, the Federal Communications Commission, the top US media regulator, moved to relax media ownership rules in local markets – a move that could allow Murdoch to go on a buying spree with his tinseltown money.

read more:

 

 

laughing in the face of death...

You may remember the first time you saw a movie character die. There’s probably an entire generation still scarred after a stampede killed Mufasa in “The Lion King” or Little Foot’s mother died trying to save him from a Sharptooth in “The Land Before Time.” And no matter how many times I watch it, I still tear up in the first minutes of Pixar’s “Up,” when Carl loses his beloved wife.

In Pixar’s latest, “Coco,” there is no escaping death. Most of the film takes place in a colorful afterlife inspired by the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos. It’s where Miguel solves a long family mystery and meets many of the relatives who passed away before he was born. It is both a happy and tragic place: a simultaneous celebration of loved ones’ lives and a lament for their loss.

Death has shown up in animated movies for decades, but only recently have they gone beyond using tragic losses as devices in character development. Now death has moved from a plot point to the subject of the movie, and in “Coco,” we see a different version of the afterlife, one without pearly gates, clouds, angel wings or halos.

Because the freewheeling medium of animation isn’t constrained by reality, animators have long had the ability to play with the concept of death. Walt Disney could easily make skeletons dance in the cemetery. In the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes shorts, Wile E. Coyote could be crushed by a boulder and spring back up to chase the Road Runner. By making the morbid comical, it isn’t so frightening. You can laugh in the face of death.

read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/08/movies/coco-pixar.html

Bambi's mum comes to mind... But Opa lying on his death bed was pretty spectacular...

selling the simpsons to donald duck...

 

Rupert Murdoch has agreed to sell $66bn (£49bn) worth of 21st Century Fox’s assets, including a Hollywood film studio and 39% stake in Sky, in a deal that transforms his media empire.

The takeover involves the 86-year-old tycoon and his family taking a 4.25% stake in Disney, which gains control of Fox assets including Avatar, X-Men, The Simpsons and Modern Family as well as the FX and National Geographic businesses.

Murdoch will retain control of Fox assets including the profitable, and controversial, Fox News channel.

“We are extremely proud of all that we have built at 21st Century Fox, and I firmly believe that this combination with Disney will unlock even more value for shareholders as the new Disney continues to set the pace in what is an exciting and dynamic industry,” said Murdoch, executive chairman of 21st Century Fox.

The Disney chief executive, Bob Iger, has signed a contract extension to continue to run the business until 2021. James Murdoch, the chief executive of 21st Century Fox, has not been named in the new corporate structure but Iger said discussions were ongoing about a potential role.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/dec/14/rupert-murdochs-60bn-disne...

 

downsizing the plot...

It’s been a big year for the media, with impressive declines in press freedom around the world, according to the latest rankings from Reporters Without Borders. 

The Scando countries remain on the top of the freedom list, with Australia at No. 19, just below Slovakia and slightly above Suriname and Samoa. Our cousins in the Land of the Strangled Vowel are at 13. 

Maybe, our freedom-crushing defamation laws are partly to blame and this year there have been some bruising defeats for the media at the hands of celebrities, while the Lloyd Rayney case in WA delivered a withering blow to Sergeant Plod. 

If juries are not bad enough, let’s not even mention judge-issued suppression orders, which are thrown around like confetti, particularly in NSW and Victoria. 

As a sign of the times, Lord Moloch’s Manly Daily, which circulates in the electorate of Ten Flags Tony, has cut its print edition from five days a week to two. This is being pitched as an “accessible and engaging” way for the organ to fit into people’s busy lives.  One old-timer commented that, with deliveries confined to Wednesday and Saturday, he will only “know what day it is twice a week”.

Not only are the aged readers of the Moloch publication disadvantaged but so too the 270 “walkers” who deliver the paper to people’s doorsteps. With fewer deliveries, Rupe saves a small fortune, paying them $16 per 150 papers delivered.  

 In other slash-and-burn developments from the Holt Street Lubyanka, free print editions of The Catholic Boys Daily and the Daily and Sunday Smellographs will no longer be delivered to 40 Fitness First gyms in Sydney. The giveaways were too expensive and the Muscle Marys didn’t read them anyway.

 

Read more:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2017/12/23/gadfly-ding-dong-merrily-...

then the chinese rats came along?...

China sold off another $3 billion-worth of US sovereign debt last week, piling on to new anti-dumping tariffs on US chemicals and duties on $60 billion-worth of US goods introduced last month. But China's real secret retaliatory measures may come in another form: through mergers and acquisitions.

This summer, Chinese antitrust authorities blocked a $44 billion bid by US telecommunications equipment giant Qualcomm to buy NXP, a Dutch semiconductor manufacturer with a major presence in China.  

Now, Sputnik China says, Beijing can put spokes in the wheels of other major deals, including Disney's planned $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

China is often the single biggest market for US multinationals, meaning that large transactions need to be coordinated with Chinese authorities or face the threat of being cut off from market access. For most companies, this would result in near immediate financial ruin, and helps explain for example why Qualcomm agreed to pay NXP $2 billion in penalties after the merger's failure than to start a quarrel with China, one of its main customers.

"The United States imports $506 billion worth of Chinese goods, with only $130 billion worth flowing in the opposite direction. If we were to think of a trade war solely in terms of mirror tariff barriers, it's likely that Chinese strength would run out faster than that of the US," Sputnik China notes. 

However, with nearly half of all Chinese exports to the US now subject to tariffs, Beijing has promised not only a quantitative, but a qualitative response, without specifying exactly what such a response may include.

 

According to a recent report by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, over half of the 430 US companies in China responding to its survey said they have already faced slower customs clearance, increased inspections, and more bureaucratic red tape in recent months amid the escalation of the trade war.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/business/201810151068906655-us-china-trade-war-o...

 

Read from top.

 

 

Meanwhile on the world oil and gas racket:

 

The developments come amid the ongoing trade spat between Beijing and Washington. As of September 24, US President Donald Trump imposed additional tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, while China retaliated with levies on $60 billion in American products, including a 10-percent tariff on US liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Beijing has put an end to its purchase of US liquefied natural gas (LNG), Reuters cited several sources as saying late last week.

In his opinion piece for Sputnik, political analyst Dmitry Lekukh pointed out that the move will deal a "very serious blow to the US energy sector given that last year the Americans supplied about 3.6 million tons of LNG to the Chinese markets."

Lekukh recalled that in the past year, US LNG manufacturers have earned about one billion dollars per month from LNG exports to China.

READ MORE: Russian LNG is Likely to See Opportunity in China Amid Gas Shortage — Analysts

"Given the constant reduction of Chinese coal capacities and the growth of the country's gas needs, the US is now losing access to the most promising market in Southeast Asia," he noted, adding that China is expected to become the leader among gas importers by November of this year.

As for the US, it will most likely face the problem of overproduction of liquefied gas "in view of the forced 'political' withdrawal of American LNG from the thriving Chinese markets," according to Lekukh.

"For US energy structures, overproduction is very bad news in this case. Especially if you take into account the parallel capacity of the Russian Yamal region, compared to which American shale is not very competitive on Asian markets. Technically, Americans cannot be seen as Russia's competitors [in this field]. Moreover, they themselves are partly to buy Russian LNG," he added.

READ MORE: US Largest LNG Exporter Strikes Major Long-Term Contract With China

In this vein, Lekukh recalled that the US LNG manufacturers are also not very competitive as compared to "traditional suppliers from Qatar and other Gulf states which deliver the fuel to Southeast Asia."

It is safe to assume, therefore, that the European markets may become "the most suitable victim of the American shale expansion – something that will neither be prevented by Nord Stream nor Turkish Stream [gas pipeline projects]," he pointed out.


Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201810151068905177-china-us-lng-supplie...

-----------------

If the US imposes sanctions on Saudi Arabia, it will “stab its own economy to death” the head of Al Arabiya said. Riyadh may become friends with Iran, trade its oil in yuan and invite the Russian military.

Saudi officials said they may retaliate against the US, if Washington delivers on a threat to impose sanctions over the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Turki Aldakhil, the General Manager of the Saudi international news network Al Arabiya, said Riyadh was considering some 30 moves that it may take in response to possible sanctions, and many of those he mentions seem pretty harsh.

In an op-ed published on Sunday, the insider said Saudi influence on the oil market alone puts it into position to badly hurt American interests. “If the price of oil reaching $80 angered President Trump, no one should rule out the price jumping to $100, or $200, or even double that figure,” he wrote, adding that Riyadh may start pricing its crude in Chinese yuan rather than US dollar, dealing a blow to its status as a world reserve currency.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/441270-saudi-retaliation-us-sanctions/

 

 

Read from top.