News Corporation considering splitting business in two

News Corporation has confirmed it is considering restructuring the company.
The media giant, headed by Rupert Murdoch, will look at splitting its operations in two. It’s thought that publishing and broadcasting operations will become two companies. News Corp did not explicitly state what they intend to do, issuing a short statement yesterday.

News Corporation confirmed today that it is considering a restructuring to separate its business into two distinct publicly traded companies. – News Corp statement.

Murdoch’s media empire has come under heavy scrutiny following the phone-hacking scandal last year which engulfed his British newspaper arm, News International. News Corp also has a 39% share in broadcaster BSkyB, a company which they wanted to take full control off but had to pull out following the scandal.
Ofcom have been looking at whether Murdoch and executives are ‘fit and proper’ to hold a broadcast licence in the UK. If the separation goes ahead it will mean that News International will no longer be directly linked via the 39% of shares that Murdoch has in BSkyB, as the publishing arm would for News Corp (of which News International is a subsidiary of in the UK) would no longer be linked as one whole News Corp operation.