News Corporation becomes largest media empire in the world

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.


News Corporation (abbreviated to News Corp) (NYSE: NWS, NYSE: NWSa, ASX: NWS, LSE: NCRA) is an Australian media conglomerate company and one of the world's largest. Its chief executive officer is Rupert Murdoch.

News Corporation is a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Australian Stock Exchange and as a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange. Formerly incorporated in Adelaide, Australia, the company was re-incorporated in the United States state of Delaware after a majority of shareholders approved the move on November 12, 2004.

News Corporation's headquarters is at 1211 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Ave.), in New York City, in the newer 1960s-1970s corridor of the Rockefeller Center complex.

Revenue for the year ended June 30, 2005 was US$23.859 billion. This does not include News Corporation's minority share of the revenue from DirecTV and BSkyB. Almost 70% of the company's sales come from its US businesses.