At the Goldman Sachs conference in New York earlier this month, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said Dow Jones's digital assets have been “crazily undervalued."
For example, there is Factiva, which Dow Jones acquired 50% of from Reuters in 2006 for $160 million. Outsell Research ranks Factiva's "premier information solutions" ahead of LexisNexis's.
What Rupert didn't say is that he's been one of those doing the undervaluing.
Rupert's biographer Michael Wolff told a conference yesterday that before Rupe acquired Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones “he had no idea there was an enterprise side of the business.”
Says Wolff:
“I believe I was the one who explained Factiva to him. It didn’t fit into his calculations or desires at all. He wanted the newspaper, and the fact that afterward he found himself with businesses that were rather more successful than the newspaper business, was surprising.”
Of course, Wolff has a new book to sell, so he's been saying lots of inflammatory things about Rupert Murdoch lately, including suggesting the mogul is tired of Fox News. But even if Wolff's right, cut Rupert some slack: We imagine it's tough keeping track of where every bit of your $9 billion net worth is coming from.
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