Rupert Murdoch Wants to Start a Billion Dollar Bidding War for Penguin
Rupert Murdoch doesn't want to let the rumored Penguin and Random House merger happen so easily, so he's put in a last minute bid to buy Penguin for $1.6 billion. In Cash. The Murdoch-owned Sunday Times first reported [warning: paywall] the billionaire put in a last minute offer to scoop up the publishing house, and Pearson executives will consider the offer over the next few days. That report was backed up by the New York Times' Amy Chozick who spoke with a person close to the negotiations.
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Murdoch is certainly in the buying mood lately. It was reported last weekend that Murdoch was thinking about purchasing the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune for his soon-to-be split publishing division at News Corp. HarperCollins, another News Corp. property, will already be under that umbrella. Rather than merge with Random House and compete with HarperCollins, Murdoch would rather just pay for it.
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This could, unfortunately, doom all of the fun names we thought up for a potential merger between Penguin and Random House. The one real downside of a HarperCollins merger is that it doesn't lend itself as well to fun new names. HarperCollins' Penguin is the best we could come up with.
