On the first day of trading as separate companies,
Still, the publishing entity, which took the name
Murdoch last year agreed to break his media empire News Corp. in two pieces in large part to free the entertainment businesses from the drag of the newspapers, which have declined in profitability.
Investors had long urged Murdoch to shed the papers, but the press baron from Australia would have none of it until a year ago when the company's British tabloids were mired in scandal, further weighing down the value of News Corp. stock.
News Corp. completed the corporate split Friday, after the financial markets closed. So Monday provided a test to see whether
Fox Class A shares closed at $29.40 a share, up from its opening price of $29.04 a share. Fox is now one the industry's highest-valued media stocks. The company, with a newly minted market value of $68 billion, consists of
The newly formed News Corp. includes the
News Corp.'s widely traded Class A shares opened Monday at $15.59 a share. They gradually declined in value throughout the day to close at $14.79 a share.
However, the stock did not fall substantially from the levels maintained last week during trading of preliminary shares, so that much was good news for Murdoch and other investors.
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