Act II Scripts Media Strategy: Long Internet, Short Newspapers

Rupert Murdoch may be bidding $5 billion for Dow Jones and its flagship property, The Wall Street Journal, but one long-time media expert views this takeover bid as a one off for the dying newspaper business, viewing pixels and bandwidth as the big winners for media investors.

“When [Murdoch] wants something, he doesn’t care what it costs,” says Dennis Leibowitz, managing partner of media-focused hedge fund Act II Partners. “In the case of Dow Jones, even though it is obviously a very high multiple for a newspaper company, [Murdoch] looks at it in global terms as a franchise.”