Murdoch is Undeniable as Top Deal-Maker of 2007

As 2007, characterized by countless mergers, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, hostile takeovers and credit turmoil, comes to a close, one individual can arguably be recognized as the year’s king of deal-making. Though his methods may have been controversial, Rupert Murdoch made big news during his highly publicized attempt at taking over Dow Jones; a difficult feat considering the company was controlled by the decidedly uncooperative Bancroft family. Credited by The New York Times DealBook as having once again achieved the impossible by purchasing “virtually the only asset in the world that wasn’t for sale,” Murdoch certainly proved his top ranking as the unofficial deal-maker of 2007 (see article by Andrew Ross Sorkin).

NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map of Murdoch’s personal connections to major corporate entities and organizations, including certain family ties that may also prove to aid in his continued corporate triumphs.

Common Connections Help Murdoch Land Top Spot in Vanity Fair's 'New Establishment'

Rupert Murdoch has once again obtained the top position on Vanity Fair’s annual “New Establishment” list of the 100 most culturally powerful and influential people (see article). NewsVisual decided to look further into this investing giant with the creation of IntellectSpace Knowledge Maps in order to get a better idea of how his connections helped him land this coveted position.

This first Knowledge Map illustrates many of Murdoch’s direct corporate connections, as well as some of his more prominent school and family ties. His links are extensive and the resulting corporate contacts he has made likely has a large impact on his continuing success and ability to reach new targets.

To further illustrate the scope of Murdoch’s network, this second Knowledge Map displays the some of the more significant board connections of News Corp, where Murdoch is the Chairman/CEO. As seen here, many of the Directors of News Corp have multiple other board memberships, which are connections that Murdoch could easily take advantage of in making future investment moves. For example, if Murdoch had his eye on doing business with Rio Tinto, he need only look to News Corp colleague Rod Eddington, who is a Director at the mining and resources group.

Murdoch likely has a similar range of connections with every company he is directly tied to and is showing no signs of slowing as far as increasing his investing reach. It's no wonder that this financial powerhouse is at the top of the investing game.

Click here or copy these links into your browser for interactive versions of these IntellectSpace Knowledge Maps (Internet Explorer browsers only):

Rupert Murdoch: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=79de03fe-3aab-4088-b2b0-7b5ab0dfb532

News Corp: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=89e717ab-8987-4628-988d-14e3a6c09f8e

A Partnership Could Be in the Cards for Pearson and CNBC

With the close of the deal between News Corp and Dow Jones looming ahead, Pearson has taken the initiative to develop a partnership to strengthen The Financial Times, its competitor to Dow Jones’ Wall Street Journal. The top candidate appears to be CNBC, which is owned by NBC Universal (see article in DealBook). To find out if there could be any truth to this rumor, we created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map that shows the common connections between Pearson and GE, the parent company of NBC Universal.

The first noteworthy relationship we uncovered is between Robin Freestone (Director and CFO of Pearson) and William Castel (Director of GE). The two are connected through Amersham, where Castel was CEO and Freestone was Group Financial Controller before the company was sold to GE in 2004. This connection as past senior executives of Amersham could have lead to talks of a partnership between Pearson and CNBC.

Another connection that could support the rumor is that shared between Patrick Cescau (Director of Pearson) and Carlos X. Gonzalez (Director of GE). Cescau is the Group Chief Executive of Unilever, where Gonzalez was a director until 2005. It is quite possible that the pair maintained contact since Gonzalez’s departure from Unilever, and have since conversed about the possibility of CNBC and Pearson joining forces.

GE’s CEO, Jeffrey R. Immelt, can also be linked to Pearson, further reinforcing the notion that Pearson could partner with CNBC. Along with Andrea Jung (Director of GE), Immelt is a board member of Catalyst, a non-profit organization. Reuben Mark (a Pearson director until 2006) is also a director at Catalyst, and these shared board memberships effectively link GE and Pearson. Although Mark is no longer with Pearson, he is probably still is in contact with current members of Pearson’s board, and still meets regularly with Immelt and Jung for Catalyst meeting, so he was likely asked to provide his input on the potential partnership.

Boards of News Corp and Dow Jones are Deeply Routed

In the midst of a possible acquisition, a visual Knowledge Map automatically generated by IntellectSpace shows how deeply routed News Corp and Dow Jones truly are. Examples of Board intersections include:

News Corp Board Member John Thornton intersects with David Li (via PCCW), Irvine Hockaday (via Ford), and Donald Peterson (via Ford) - each of whom either serve or have served as Board Members of Dow Jones

Peter Chernin and Hamish Maxwell of News Corp intersect with Harvey Golub, Vernon Jordan and Frank Newman of Dow Jones through American Express and the Banker's Trust.

To see an interactive version of this Knowledge Map, click on the link below or paste the following URL into your Internet Explorer browser (other browsers are not supported at this time):

http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=56889998-6107-4320-bdf9-ab752bfc8a11