Overview of the Company

Its reincorporation in 2004, News Corporation moves its headquarters from Adelaide, Australia to New York City of the United States. The company's business portfolio includes television programming, motion picture production, TV, cable and satellite broadcasting, publishing of newspaper, book and magazine as well as the distribution and promotion of advertising campaign materials and services. Murdoch has been able to build a media empire starting with ownership of the Adelaide news, which his father has established in 1924, which is the first national daily newspaper and then acquired British and American media properties to expand his business portfolio. The subsidiaries of the News Corporation include Twentieth Century Fox and Fox Entertainment group movie studio. In addition, the corporation has also 34% stake in the DIRECTV Group and also have the ownership of over 30 American television stations, Boston Herald and New York Post newspapers and various Britain largest circulation newspapers which include The News of the World, The Sun and The Times.

Moreover, the corporation has the extensive business operations across Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America.

Strategy Options
The main strategic approach of the company is with regards to their ability to transform the entire corporation into a company that provides the latest in the media corporations.
The main goal of News Corporation is : To create an industry which is unified, logical and creative. To build an industry with the agility and alertness to find strategic opportunities when they arise. With the mission of the company to provide the highest quality content through the most convenient of distribution channels among various customers, the company has been able to provide quality and state of the arts media services and productions that suits the needs of the people in the global market.

Theoretical Framework
a. Business Model (Motivation for Diversification to Satellite Broadcasting)
One of the business models used by the company is the diversification of their business portfolio into satellite broadcasting. The main goal of the News Corporation to diversify is to cater to the emerging needs of the market. In this regard, the News Corporation has been able to launch the UK Sky Television on February 5, 1989. The Sky television is a direct-to-home satellite broadcasting.

The main motivation of News Corporation to diversify is to anticipate the intensifying communication in terms of communications satellite broadcasting services. In addition, News Corporation also diversify to become more innovative in providing their services and media coverage to their target audience in terms of switching from analogue to digital and to consider multichannel broadcasting.
Another motivation of the News Corporation to diversify into Satellite broadcasting is to provide a new strategy in terms of programme material distribution. Through this diversification the company has been able to provide opportunities for any broadcaster to increase their channel distribution which allows the distribution of different programmes to different countries.

b. Analytical Tool :SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths:
1. Synergies: News Corp's conglomerate nature allows for synergies to exist among its companies and affiliates.

2. Branding: The Fox name has been branded throughout the News Corp family. It creates a familiarity for the customer and an expectation for excellence.
3. Global presence: It is one of the smaller players in the industry; however, it holds one of the strongest international presences in the market. This cross border diversification offers News Corp greater opportunity for expansion. 4. Leveraging Sports: News Corp has contracted with multiple sports to boots its ratings: 1999 News Corp acquired the broadcast rights to NASCAR's 20 annual races (the 2nd most popular sport in the US); in 1993 they won the bid for the 4 year National Football Conference (NFC) package, forcing cable operators to put Fox on the air. It all started with the exclusive rights to broadcast Premier League Soccer, this contract put BSkyB into almost every home in the UK. 5. Strong market position and customer reach.

Weaknesses:
Not all of diversification and approach have been successful and this can be considered as one of the flaws or weaknesses of the company. The company focuses too much on their high-end acquisitions and diversification in spite of the risky effects of such decisions. No clear successor for CEO Murdoch News Corp leadership maintains a "I know better than you" attitude about everything.

Opportunities:
One of the company's opportunities is to tap into more markets as a result of the innovations being introduced in the media and television and internet industry.
Localised capabilities enabling or even enhancing such co-operation will always make a difference when it comes to first-mover advantages. The opportunity to penetrate new growth markets where internet media adoption still has room to go, Leveraging News Corporation's infrastructure business to get first choice and stronger position against rivals is also an opportunity. They also have the opportunity to get ahead of their rival companies, since the said market is a potential sizeable source of income. The trend of considering the internet market also show cases new opportunities for the company specifically with their acquisition of the MySpace.com

Threats:
Rival companies are major threats to the business.

News Corporation, in contrast, started out in other lines of business and entered broadcast and media capabilities of the company.
The firm's inability to keep up with innovations, or recognise its demand, creates a threat for them, a risk that they could be displaced by other industry leaders. The legal and political environment in the countries where they operate in could potentially affect the business negatively. Their apparent complacence could be used by their rival companies to their advantage, and take News Corporation by surprise, with the latter realising too late that they are not the industry leader anymore.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Acquisition Method

Advantages:
One of the advantages of acquisition in News Corporation is in terms of market growth. With the acquired company, News Corporation has been able to diversify their products and business portfolio and meet the needs and demands of their target audience. The company has also been able to see their potentials in different market including the internet market. The management has also been able to grow in terms of investment and grow in terms of market shares. The company has more opportunities to provide the latest products or services in the interactive media which may lead to further success of the company.

Disadvantages:
One of this is the threat of not fulfilling the needs of the acquired company which results in major downturn or bankruptcy of the entire industry.
In addition, with so much company at stake, the management is being challenged to be able to meet all the needs of each of the company acquire to stay competitive in the market position. The acquisition entails large values of financial resources involved and if the company would not be able to manage the acquired industries strategically, all their hard work will end to major fallback for the entire industry. In order to maximize the advantage and minimize or eliminate the disadvantages, the company must be able to use strategic management approach to handle all their subsidiaries and acquired industries.

Role of Rupert Murdoch in the development of NewsCorps corporate strategy

As Chairman and Chief Executive and controlling shareholder, Rupert Murdoch plays the most important role in setting the multinationals corporate strategy. The companys corporate strategy and Murdochs personal strategy are the same. His personal corporate strategy for the business is growth, and this is the route that the business has taken during the period of the case. He offers the multinational vision and political acumen, commercial skills and knowledge, and an ability for taking advantage of opportunities. However, while having a personal corporate strategy for the business he also has a personal strategy for himself that of maintaining control of the multinational. This he has achieved by maintaining his managerial and ownership position and by the particular financing strategies that he has implemented.

Some comments on finance and financing strategies

The financing of NewsCorp has been influenced by two particular issues (a) the need for substantial sums of money to implement Rupert Murdochs corporate strategy of integration and globalisation in the highly competitive time-based media industries.

(b) the personal strategy of Rupert Murdoch to maintain personal control over the multinational.
Preference for long-term debt funding rather than equity and maximisation of retained earnings.

The debt-funding approach threatened catastrophe for Murdoch on more than one occasion, particularly when the mode of financing was insufficiently sophisticated to meet the demands of such a complex and globalising business.
NewsCorp has recently revised its corporate accounting policy, paying more tax in the process, and declared its intent to change its incorporation from Australia to the USA.

NewsCorp has also limited its dividend payments. The announcement of dividend payments to BSkyB shareholders in 2004. NewsCorps business dealings emphasises that the guiding philosophy behind the financial management of the business has been less to do with maximising profits and much more with facilitating expansion, even at the risk of the firm. This non-rational approach to corporate management is one of the most intriguing things about NewsCorp.

Analysis
Due to the management approach of the News Corporation, the company has been able to grow in the media market efficiently and successfully. With the ability of the management to visualize what is needed to grow in the media and broadcasting market, the management considered different approaches and business models such as diversification and acquisition approach. Analysis also shows that with the aim of the company to stay in the competitive and strategic position, they are able to anticipate major challenges and maximize their strategic abilities to meet the needs of their target audience and outgrow rival industries in the global market.

The key unresolved issues for the future for Newscorp.

Globalisation aspects:

The case highlighted some political, cultural and commercial problems in parts of Asia.
Further problems may arise. For example, all that Rupert Murdoch is good at (fast, opportunistic decision-making, ruthless exploitation of competitive half-openings, willingness to work with any culture) runs counter to Chinese and Japanese business culture, which values relationships, consultation and controlled competition. Here the choice of joint-venture partners will be important.

Succession issue:
This is a major issue given the role that Rupert Murdoch plays in the multinational. If the core logic of NewsCorp relates to realisation of Murdochs own personal media vision then it is possible that no successor will share such a vision. Instead a successor may focus on more traditional business issues such as maximising profits rather than growth, and be much more conservative in business dealings. NewsCorp under any other successor may become a very different beast to the corporation built by Rupert Murdoch.

Conclusion
It can be concluded that the management must be able to know what is happening in the internal and external environment of the business. Strategic management through proper planning, organizing, leading, and controlling is needed. Through this, the management will also be able to counter the negative impact of globalization, technology, innovation, diversity and ethics.