Murdoch dismisses Malone threat

ADELAIDE - John Malone's Liberty Media was unlikely to try to take over News Corp, News chairman Rupert Murdoch said yesterday, but News Corp would keep its poison pill in place just in case.

Murdoch also said News Corp was very unlikely to make a bid for publisher Knight Ridder, which said this week that it would explore a possible sale of the company, bowing to demands from two large investors unhappy with its depressed stock price.

Murdoch defended the company's decision to extend a poison pill provision to block a hostile takeover by Liberty, and said it would remain in place as long as there was any chance of such a move by Malone.

"I don't think there is any chance of it. We have a very good relationship," Murdoch said after his first shareholder briefing in Australia after moving the company's corporate domicile to the United States a year ago.

"The last thing John has is the management to run this company or the appetite to have most of our assets. But we think the idea of someone getting control or undue influence over the company without paying a proper premium for it is wrong for all other shareholders."

A group of shareholders has launched legal action against the poison pill extension, arguing that the company promised it would not extend the provision without seeking shareholder approval.

"They're wrong. It was not a promise. We were very careful about it. And we said so at the time that we were very careful, that this was a policy we had," Murdoch said.

Murdoch, 74, was in Adelaide to open News Ltd's new building, named after his father, Keith, who founded the newspaper empire, but he did not shed any light on who might succeed him following his son Lachlan's exit from News Corp last July.

"I'm sick of being told I'm dying. I'm feeling great. I may feel different next year, I may feel different in 20 years," said Murdoch, who has said in the past that he would only leave the company in a coffin.

Succession would be up to the group's board and the desire of his children to lead the company.

Murdoch said Knight Ridder held little appeal for News Corp because of its shrinking classified advertising, declining circulation and demographic difficulties.

- REUTERS