I yesterday had breakfast with a good friend of mine I used to work with during my years at Bain & Company. The guy is now one of the top NewsCorp executive in Europe with a responsibility to seek interesting partnerships and investments for Sir Ruppert. He used to report directly to him, so happens to know the incredible man pretty well.
2 striking points which came up in the course of our casual conversation :
- Acquisition decision process within NewsCorp is extremely quick, with potential deals going straight to Murdoch himself and his young (33) and brilliant Chief of Staff. Ruppert Murdoch is a deal maker and can make up his mind in no time as to allocate capital or not . As an example, the so famous MySpace $580M deal was decided in less than 24 hours. MySpace had another SPA (Stock Purchase Agreement) in hands, so Murdoch had to decide quickly whether to overbid, which he did. Rather unusual for a company of that size. Worthless mentioning how we made acquisitions at PepsiCo ! Murdoch has in mind every single price he paid for all the acquisitions of the Group, be it very small ones !
It reminds me my great and so much rewarding days at the Dole Food Company where David Murdock (despite name similarities, nothing to do with Ruppert, one is American, the other Australian, both are billionar !) could also decide the relevance and the price of an acquisition in 2 seconds ! Some people just have an incredible drive and the flair to make quick deals ! Just for the fun of it, on the left side a picture of Governator Schwarzy shaking hand with 83 years old David Murdock, Chairman, CEO and now sole owner of the Dole Food Company (whose HQ is in Westlake, California). Here more info on this incredible guy that David Murdock is, a high schoold drop out, totally obsessed by money (when he was a young boy, he had claimed he wanted to become the world's richest guy !), who went bankrupt twice but always magnificently recovered.
- As an acquirer of Internet companies (ie MySpace again), NewsCorp is seeking highly motivated management who have demonstrated their total commitment to the business. My friend wouldn't be comfortable in investing or acquiring a business whose management haven't put a significant portion of their own money in the venture, especially if they are wealthy. Moreover, they like start-up companies to be managed like start-ups, ie with an adequate cost structure and a frugal standard of living.
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