Murdoch Wants Yahoo! Stake

Jun 20, 01:04 PM

Current Headlines: New York media mogul Rupert Murdoch wants a stake in Yahoo! and is willing to give up MySpace to get it, it was reported Wednesday.

Murdoch has discussed giving up his interest in MySpace for a one-quarter interest in Yahoo!, The Washington Post said. Preliminary talks on the two Internet companies were initiated before Terry Semel resigned as chief executive officer at Yahoo!, a source familiar with the situation told the Post.

It was unclear whether discussions would continue under Yahoo!'s new leader, Jerry Yang.

Yahoo! declined to comment on the talks, first reported in The Times of London, which is owned by Murdoch's News Corp.

Murdoch bought MySpace, the online social networking Web site, and other Internet concerns for $650 million two years ago, while Yahoo! is valued at about $37 billion.

Murdoch also is trying to buy Dow Jones and Co., which owns The Wall Street Journal, for about $5 billion.