Rupert Murdoch's News Corp tightened its grip on Sky Deutschland on Monday, saying it would raise its stake in the German pay-TV company to 54.5 percent from just under half in a capital increase.The move comes as media conglomerate News Corp separates its publishing and entertainment assets into two publicly traded companies following shareholder pressure to sell its troubled newspaper business and put a greater focus on the faster-growing TV companies.It also follows an attempt in 2010 by News Corp to snap up the 61 percent of Britain's BSkyB that it did not already own. That deal was eventually scuppered by a phone hacking scandal at one of Murdoch's tabloid newspapers, but it indicated the group's intentions around pay-TV.News Corp is hoping Sky Deutschland will turn out like BSkyB, which has amassed over 10 million customers and grown adept at selling increasing numbers of services to them.
News Corporation is a diversified global media company. Shares of NWSA remained unchanged at $26.93. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $13.55 and as high as $24.04. On average, 19309000 shares of NWSA exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 0.
Source
