News Corp. Stock Buyback, Canoe Ventures CEO to Leave
By | July 12, 2011
Murdochgate. The media mogul’s Brit paper News of the World is officially dead in the wake of its cell phone hacking scandal (though 3.8 million copies of the final issue, the company boasts, are circulating), but the News Corp. bid to takeover British broadcaster BSkyB lives on. The latest: The company’s board of directors authorized a $5 billion stock buyback program, an increase from the company’s current buyback of $1.8 billion, a move which could appease shareholders. Meanwhile, News Corp.’s bid is delayed for at least six months while the UK’s anti-trust regulating Competition Commission reviews the proposed takeover.
Job Loss. Cisco Systems may cut up to 10,000 jobs, and about 7,000 could be eliminated by the end of August. According to Bloomberg, Cisco lost 6.4 percentage points to 54.2 percent of the market for global router sales in the first quarter of 2011, compared to the year prior. More than half of the company’s revenue last year is attributed to switches and router sales, but lower-priced products from competitors such as Juniper Networks are seeing better numbers, says an analyst.
Exec Watch. Canoe Ventures, an interactive TV platform created by major MSOs in 2008, announced CEO David Verklin is leaving at the end of the summer. The company’s COO Kathy Timko will serve at the helm in the interim. National ads for VOD will soon launch, according to the release.
Tri-state Broadband. Clearwire, Time Warner Cable and Sprint announced that the Clearwire 4G mobile broadband network is expanding its reach across the greater New York City metro area by 21 percent. More than 11,927,000 people now have access to the network.