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Friday, May 2, 2014

News Corp ties knot with romance novel publisher, (NASDAQ: NWSA)

News Corp said on Friday it would purchase romance novel publisher Harlequin Enterprises Ltd from Canadian newspaper company Torstar Corp for C$455 million ($415 million) in cash in a move to boost its non-English book publishing.News Corp's HarperCollins publishing unit will be the new home of Harlequin, which puts out books aimed at women with racy titles such as "My Fair Billionaire" and "Expecting the CEO's Child."Torstar, owner of the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper by circulation, said the sale would strengthen its balance sheet and give Harlequin more opportunities to grow. Torstar shares surged 14 percent in early trading on Friday."Harlequin is a perfect fit for the new News Corp, vastly expanding our digital platform, extending our reach across borders and languages, and is expected to provide an immediate lift to earnings" said News Corp Chief Executive Officer Robert Thomson.

News Corporation is a diversified media and information services company. Shares of NWSA traded higher by 0.46% or $0.08/share to $17.38. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $14.39 and as high as $18.53. On average, 2957550 shares of NWSA exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1065188.



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