[...] agency or if it was his own thing. Unless it was some­body else’s? We must nev­er for­get that Prince Alwaleed from Sau­di Ara­bia, who is an Islamist linked to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, is the sec­ond largest [...]

It looks like the breakup of News Corp. into sep­a­rate news and enter­tain­ment com­pa­nies will have a par­tic­u­lar­ly unset­tling con­se­quence: The restruc­tured news com­pa­ny will be debt free, and that means Rupert gets to go on a news­pa­per buy­ing spree:

Tri­bune Said to Seek Bankers for News­pa­per Sale
By Edmund Lee & Ser­e­na Sait­to — Dec 11, 2012 11:41 AM CT

Tri­bune Co., the bank­rupt own­er of the Chica­go Tri­bune, Los Ange­les Times and six oth­er dai­ly news­pa­pers, is inter­view­ing bankers about sell­ing its papers, accord­ing to two peo­ple with knowl­edge of the mat­ter.

Tri­bune Co. is seek­ing an advis­er for a pos­si­ble sale after the com­pa­ny exits bank­rupt­cy, which is slat­ed to hap­pen by Dec. 31, accord­ing to the peo­ple, who asked not to be named because the dis­cus­sions are pri­vate. Rupert Mur­doch, chair­man and chief exec­u­tive offi­cer of News Corp. (NWSA), plans to take a close look at Tri­bune Co.’s news­pa­per assets once they’re avail­able, accord­ing to a per­son with direct knowl­edge of his think­ing.

...

FCC Approval

In Novem­ber, Tri­bune Co. won approval from the Fed­er­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion to trans­fer its tele­vi­sion and radio licens­es to new own­ers — includ­ing JPMor­gan Chase & Co. (JPM), and hedge funds Oak­tree Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment LP and Ange­lo, Gor­don & Co. — the last hur­dle to emerg­ing from bank­rupt­cy.

U.S. Bank­rupt­cy Judge Kevin Carey accept­ed Tribune’s pro­pos­al to divide own­er­ship of the news­pa­per and tele­vi­sion com­pa­ny among its lenders in July.

Mur­doch, 81, has expressed inter­est inter­nal­ly at look­ing at some of Tribune’s big­ger-mar­ket news­pa­pers, accord­ing to one of the peo­ple. News Corp. is split­ting into two com­pa­nies, with one focused on enter­tain­ment and the oth­er on news­pa­pers and pub­lish­ing. The new pub­lish­ing com­pa­ny, which will start off with a debt-free bal­ance sheet, may give Mur­doch more lat­i­tude to pur­sue news­pa­per acqui­si­tions, the per­son said.

...