"Hell no," Mr Murdoch told The Australian newspaper, when asked if News Corp had its own merger plans. Mr Murdoch told the paper that News Corp had no intention of merging with anyone or buying just for the sake of getting bigger. "We don't see anything out there at an attractive price," Mr Murdoch said. Speculation was rife that News Corp would cement its alliance with US web portal Yahoo!, one of AOL's biggest competitors.
Shares in News Corp rocketed more than four dollars to a record high yesterday on the news of the AOL-Time alliance, adding $16 billion to the company's value. The buying spree was sparked by new demand for media stocks following the merger - the world's largest ever.
That sent the Australian share market on course to its own all-time closing high, with the benchmark all ordinaries ending up 61.5 points higher at 3164.6. News Corp shot up in opening trade and never looked back, with its ordinary and preference shares hitting new intraday and closing price highs.
The ordinary shares hit a new all-time high of $18.62 before closing up $4.053 or 27.86 per cent at $18.603. News Corp's preferred scrip hit $16.52 and finished at $16.45, up $3.60. By the close of trade, News Corp scrip was worth around $72.62 billion, up $15.96 billion on Monday's $56.66 billion.
