On April 25, one month after the agreement was reached, SEM Group (Standard Entertainment Media Group) publicly announced that it had completed the acquisition of the Times Newspaper Company under News International Group.
At the same time, the Independent Newspaper Group under SEM Group will be renamed Standard Newspaper Group, and the newspapers it operates will be expanded to include The Times and The Sunday Times.
The Times was founded in 1785 and has a history of 222 years.
For a long time, The Times has been regarded as the first mainstream newspaper in Britain and is known as "a faithful recorder of British society."
The Times has played an important role in British domestic politics and international relations.
However, after being acquired by Murdoch, many people believe that the style of The Times has gradually become conservative.
After the Times was merged into the Standard Newspaper Group, its CEO Ibai Gomes said that the Times will continue to uphold its purpose of "independently and objectively reporting facts" and "reporting developing history"...
This also means that the Standard Newspaper Group will own two of the four major newspapers in Britain, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph.
In fact, in addition to Sky TV's concession on the Premier League broadcasting rights and the sale of The Times Newspaper Group to SEM Group, Barron's previous "friendship" with Murdoch also included SEM Group's acquisition of News Corporation's Reuters Group shares for 650 million pounds.
Currently, News Corporation owns 10% of Reuters Group's shares, but Barron's acquisition of Reuters Group's shares this time is not "taking advantage of the fire", but can indeed be regarded as a matter of affection.
SEM Group also paid a part of the premium for purchasing 10% of Reuters Group's shares for 650 million pounds - the current market value of Reuters Group is around 6 billion pounds.
When Murdoch first served as a director of Reuters, News Corporation once held more than 23% of Reuters shares at its peak.
However, Murdoch was eventually forced to reduce his stake in Reuters from 23% to less than 15%, and now only holds 10% of the shares - because Reuters Founders AG was worried that he would launch a hostile takeover of Reuters.
Here we need to briefly introduce Reuters Founders AG, which was established after Reuters went public in 1984. Its main purpose is to defend the fairness and independence of Reuters' news services.
The board members of Reuters Founders AG are called trustees. After any investor holds more than 15% of the shares in the listed company Reuters, the trustees can force these investors to reduce their shares.
They can also call for a special shareholders' meeting to prevent any investor from attempting to gain control of the company.
For example, forcing Murdoch to reduce his shareholding in Reuters to less than 15% is the only time Reuters Founders AG has exercised this "golden equity" so far.
Murdoch also realized that he could not convince the trustees of the founder's stock company of Reuters that his acquisition of the company would not affect the neutrality and fairness of its reports, so he finally decided to continuously reduce his holdings of Reuters shares.
In fact, the 10% of Reuters shares he holds now can no longer bring him much effect.
Because during Murdoch's tenure as a director, the board meetings of Reuters were always very "active".
Murdoch needs to face too many doubts.
In addition, although Murdoch has not announced it publicly, Baron knows that News Corporation has now begun to be interested in Dow Jones, which owns many media including the Wall Street Journal, and is preparing to acquire it.
Therefore, Murdoch's sale of Reuters shares at this time can not only abandon this tasteless chicken rib, but also obtain some funds to acquire Dow Jones.
While buying 10% of Reuters shares from News Corporation, SEM Group also began to increase its holdings of Reuters shares on the stock market.
In the end, they set their shareholding ratio in Reuters Group at 15%, which is the upper limit of the shareholding allowed by Reuters Founders AG for a single person or institution.
If possible, Barron naturally hopes that SEM Group can acquire Reuters Group, but before that, he needs to face the obstacle of Reuters Founders AG and obtain the other party's approval before he can complete the acquisition.
...
"How are you doing recently, Kaiser." After the overwhelming news about Prince William and Cather's breakup in the media died down, Barron arranged a meeting with Cather at a villa in the suburbs of England.
"Of course I'm fine. If I wasn't, would you still meet me?"
It can be heard that although Cather still had a smile on her face, there was still some emotion in her words.
"The reason I met you now is that I don't want to make things more complicated when all the reporters' attention is on you..."
Barron spread his hands and said:
"If there is anything I can do to help, I am very happy to do it. After all, I regard you as friends."
"Friends?"
Cather said with some self-mockery:
"I have broken up with William. How can I be qualified to be a friend of you, the Duke of Devonshire? I also want to thank you for giving me the job before. I'm afraid it was also because of William..."
Although Cather said the truth, Barron would not really be so straightforward.
He looked into Cather's eyes and said sincerely:
"Of course not, even if you are no longer William's girlfriend, I will not change my attitude, because that is not necessary for me at all..."
"Or is it because we have slept together before?"
"Uh... Cather, I almost forgot about that."
After Barron said this, Cather's eyes drooped slightly and fell on the table. She said lightly:
"Yeah, I am a little self-indulgent. If a woman who has had anything with you... needs to be taken care of... that is impossible."
"Cather..."
Feeling that her topic had deviated a little, Barron looked at Cather again and said:
"I know that you have always wanted to become a princess, or even a queen..."
"Yes, everyone says so, including the media. After we broke up, they began to ridicule me, saying that my dream of becoming a princess was over, and I need to constantly cheer up to face them..."
At this point, Cather became a little excited:
"It's also a breakup, I can't show any frustration, let alone do anything wrong, but what about him? He can even go to the bar to drink and have fun without caring..."
Barron has also seen media reports about what Kate said...
Contrary to Kate's deliberate efforts to maintain a perfect image in front of the media, William didn't seem to care about other people's opinions after the breakup.
According to the news in the newspaper, on the night of the breakup, William drank and had fun with friends at the famous Mahiki bar.
In one report, the amount of money he spent at the time was even found - 4,700 pounds.
In addition, the reporter interviewed the bartender of the bar, who claimed to have heard William say:
"I'm really happy, I want to have a good time!"
When William walked out of the bar, he was already drunk and even had wine on his pants.
A bystander at the time commented:
"He doesn't look like a prince at all, just like a young Londoner who is out for fun."