Investment fund takes 12% stake in News Corp.
- Fund that has allied with activist investor Carl Icahn says stake is passive
- Memphis-based asset management firm is known as a value investor
- News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal%2C the New York Post and other media
A Memphis-based asset management firm known as a value investor has scooped up a big chunk of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Southeastern Asset Management has acquired a nearly 12% voting stake in News. Corp, according to regulatory documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.That makes it the second largest-largest stockholder behind Chairman Murdoch.
Investors seem pleased. Shares of News Corp. surged 3% Wednesday to finish at $17.05, the highest close since the company started trading as a media firm in late June.
News Corp. owns, among other things, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post as well as book publisher HarperCollins. It was spun off in June from Murdoch's lucrative entertainment holdings.
Southeastern, headed by founder, CEO and billionaire O. Mason Hawkins, recently was allied with activist investor Carl Icahn in a campaign to block a buyout effort aimed at taking PC maker Dell private. Icahn abandoned that battle on Monday.
According to the filing, Southeastern has purchased 23,767,700 Class B shares of News Corp. stock. Based on Tuesday's closing price of $16.72, Southeastern's stake is worth in the neighborhood of $395 million. According to a Bloomberg News Service report, 82--year-old Murdoch, long-time chairman of News Corp., owns 39% of the company's stock.
Southeastern's investments include Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Scripps Networks Interactive and the Washington Post Co.