Fox spinoff begins trading
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox has spun off various television assets — including the Fox News Channel and Fox broadcast network — to form a new company that will be known simply as Fox Corp.
The spinoff completed early Tuesday is part of a multi-pronged process that will culminate with the $71.3 billion sale of the rest of Murdoch’s entertainment company to Walt Disney Co. The company announced that it had finished the process of issuing shares in the new Fox Corp. to investors of 21st Century Fox.
Fox announced its board members, including former U.S. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-wis. Other board members include Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, Anne Dias, Chase Carey, Roland A. Hernandez and Jacques Nasser.
The new Fox is now “a standalone, publicly traded company,” the company said.
Tuesday was the new company’s first day of trading on the Nasdaq market under ticker FOX. It opened at $41.55 per share and fell about 3 percent to $40.34 by the end of the day.
The new incarnation of Fox is a slimmer version of the old Fox.
Its assets include Fox News Channel; Fox Business Network; two national Fox Sports channels, FS1 and FS2; the Fox Broadcasting network; and Fox’s chain of television stations.
The reconfigured Fox Corp. will emphasize live programming, with NFL prime-time games on Thursday nights and WWE’S “Smackdown” on Fridays.
The network’s entertainment chief, Charlie Collier, has said Fox will remain in the scripted-tv business, taking ownership stakes in the new series it buys from outside suppliers and developing its own properties. Fox has negotiated deals with Disney to keep the network’s signature animated shows “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” and will continue to develop new series in the genre.