The Murdoch Mission
The Digital Transformation of a Media Empire
Chapter One
THE DREAM BEAM
In the spring of 2001, Rupert Murdoch thought he'd reached the culmination
of a deal he'd been working on intensely for months-the acquisition of
GM's Hughes Electronics and DirecTV-a key component to the grandest
plan of his career: the creation of Sky Global Networks. To pull it off, his company
and another formidable giant, Microsoft Corp., needed to become bedfellows
while waiting for a pair of CEO brothers at GM to sort out their
priorities.
Amidst the midtown bustle, down the gray avenues of
Manhattan, stark in the morning sun, Rupert Murdoch
approaches the News Corp. office tower at
1221 Avenue of the Americas. Through the revolving glass
doors, up the elevators, and past the third-floor reception
area, silver-haired Murdoch-removing his jacket-arrives at
his desk slightly slumped and paws through some papers like
an old lion who can no longer be startled by anything laid
before him. It is March 16, 2001, and the 70-year-old media
mogu ... read full excerpt from The Murdoch Mission: The Digital Transformation of a Media Empire ebook
