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Murdoch's News Corp feels Tremor with sale of Unruly – Sky News, Sky.com

Murdoch's News Corp feels Tremor with sale of Unruly – Sky News, Sky.com


             

News Corp, the wing of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire which owns The Times and Harper Collins, is to sell the video advertising platform Unruly at a huge discount to the price it paid for the business in (********************************.

Sky News has learnt that News Corp, which also owns the Dow Jones. financial information group, has reached a provisional deal with Tremor International, a London-listed ad technology company, to offload Unruly.

The transaction, which could be announced to the stock market as early as Monday morning, will see News Corp receiving a small equity stake in Tremor in return for handing over ownership of Unruly.

  

News Corp and Tremor both declined to comment on Sunday evening

      

Image:
        News Corp and Tremor both declined to comment on Sunday evening      

A source close to News Corp said that Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News UK – which publishes The Times and The Sun, and owns the TalkSport radio station – would join the board of Tremor as a non-executive director.

If confirmed, it would be Mrs Brooks’ first role on the board of a public company, and would come more than four years after she returned to the Murdoch fold.

In 2017, she stepped down from her executive role during the phone-hacking scandal that prompted the closure of the News Of The World.

The agreement over the future of Unruly will also include a provision for Tremor to become the exclusive video partner across scores of News Corp titles, including its British newspaper assets and overseas publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post .

For Mr Murdoch’s company, the deal will secure an exit from direct ownership of a loss-making technology business which has seen its valuation slump from the £ m it paid to buy Unruly.

It will, however, allow News Corp to retain its exposure to an important growth sector of the advertising market through its partial ownership of a much larger player.

  

Rebekah Brooks Chief Executive of News UK leaves the offices of Unruly Media

      

Image:
        A source close to News Corp said that Rebekah Brooks will join Tremor’s board      

Sources pointed out that it would also include an ongoing financial benefit to News Corp through the inclusion of a guaranteed revenue stream from its future alliance with Tremor.

The exact size of News Corp’s prospective stake in Tremor was unclear on Sunday evening, although one person close to the media giant suggested that it was likely to be close to (%.

Tremor’s market capitalization of just under £ m means that the shareholding would be financially immaterial in the context of News Corp’s $ 8. (bn) £ 6. 39 bn) market capitalization.

For Tremor, which operates through three core divisions, the acquisition of Unruly will expand its international coverage by creating partnerships with prominent media titles in the US, Europe and Asia.

Sky News revealed last August that Ne ws Corp had hired bankers to explore options for Unruly after receiving several unsolicited approaches for the business.

Robert Thomson, News Corp’s chief executive, subsequently confirmed the sale process as part of a results statement which reaffirmed his desire to “simplify” the company.

Mr Thomson had previously described Unruly as “a feisty and creative company” that provided “contemporary insight into how people read, watch, buy and sell in the digital era “.

News Corp’s decision to sell Unruly comes amid a fast-changing global video advertising market dominated by Facebook and Google, the internet search giant that is a subsidiary of Alphabet and which owns YouTube.

Unruly handles all of News Corp’s digital advertising inventory, and has sought to expand both geographically and in terms of its product offering since the takeover.

Last year, Unruly announced a global partnership with Formula1.com, the offici al online home of the world’s most popular motor racing series.

Under their deal, the tech company supplies video advertising to the F1 site, which boasts more than million unique viewers around the world.

Unruly’s products include ShareRank , a tool that predicts whether videos on social and digital media are likely to go viral.

Founded by Sarah Wood, Scott Button and Matt Cooke in (*********************************, Unruly quickly became a darling of London’s tech start-up scene.

The trio stepped back from day-to-day operational roles just over two years ago, with Ms Wood becoming the company chairman and her two co-founders assuming advisory roles.

Unruly is now run by Norm Johnston, who Previously worked in senior roles at media-buying agencies.

Mr Johnston is expected to remain in his role and to join Tremor’s board following the deal.

In (*****************************, Unruly laun ched the U7, a council comprising 10 of the world’s largest advertisers, including Diageo, GlaxoSmithKline, Mars and Unilever.

In addition to its British newspaper assets, News Corp owns the financial media organization Dow Jones, within which the WSJ sits, the book publisher HarperCollins and Move, the owner of property website Realtor.com.

Its assets in Australia include the merged Foxtel and Fox Sports Australia, and investments in AAP, the The country’s largest news wire service, and the rugby league team the Brisbane Broncos.

A sale of Unruly, would be the latest – albeit modestly sized – corporate transaction undertaken by Mr Murdoch’s constantly evolving media empire.

After the phone-hacking scandal gripped the company in 2015, News Corp pursued a demerger of its entertainment operations into a new business called st Century Fox in 2013.

The demerged business included a substantial shareholding in Sky News’ owner, BSkyB, which subsequently became Sky plc.

In 2019, Mr Murdoch agreed to a sale of a large chunk of (st Century Fox’s) (CF) assets, including its film studio, to The Walt Disney Company.

**************************************** (CF’s) % Sky stake was sold separately to Comcast, the US media giant behind NBCUniversal, along with the publicly traded shares in the British entertainment, telecoms and broadband provider.

(The renamed Fox Corporation, which is listed on Nasdaq, is chaired by Mr Murdoch, and owns a spectrum of Fox-branded news and entertainment businesses.

Fox is run by Lachlan Murdoch, one of the elder Mr Murdoch’s sons.

Needham, a US- based investment bank, advised News Corp on the process, while Tremor is being advised by bankers at Alvarium and Finncap.

News Corp and Tremor both declined to comment on Sunday evening.

    Rebekah Brooks Chief Executive of News UK leaves the offices of Unruly Media Rebekah Brooks Chief Executive of News UK leaves the offices of Unruly Media Rebekah Brooks Chief Executive of News UK leaves the offices of Unruly Media Read More**********************

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