|
Murdoch mayhem hits India
News Corp Chairman
Rupert Murdoch seems to have made a lot out of his Mumbai
visit. The media baron held a series of meetings in Mumbai.
He touched base with his old friends, colleagues, to-be
business partners, ex-partners, and important local political
heavyweights.
On Tuesday morning,
he had a meeting with Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh,
wherein he reiterated his commitment to further his investments
in Maharashtra, and also voiced his interest in taking part
in the information technology revolution that the new NCP
government is trying to bring into the state. The meeting
was followed by an impromptu press conference.
The previous day he had meetings with petrochemical and
telecom baron Dhirubhai Ambani, his old partner turned rival
Subhash Chandra, and the Baramati badshah and leader of
the National Congress Party Sharad Pawar, apart from the
Star TV staff.
Reportedly, the meeting with Subhash Chandra was a courtesy
call and no business was discussed. A large part of his
day was spent at the Star TV office in Andheri. He is also
seriously considering Sam Pitroda's WorldTel venture of
spreading cyber cafes all over the country at par with the
STD booths.
He is expected to meet Ratan Tata who recently announced
his Infotech plans. Discussions could cover a Joint venture
whereby Murdoch would provide content for Tata's IT network.
Murdoch's agenda also includes meetings with Ashok Hinduja,
Remi Hinduja and his old friend Nusli Wadia. The Hinduja-run
cable network IN CableNet could do business with News Corp
as IN Cablenet needs content and News Corp needs distribution.
This can tackle the threat from the Zee group which owns
SitiCable and which also has the content power.
The media giant, earlier, was pretty impressed with Bangalore
city. He had held preliminary talks with some portals and
he is expected to fund a couple of ventures. One on the
list includes a portal by the Pradip Kar owned Microland
Group and the other is a Bangalore-centric portal Explocity.com.
Murdoch also announced that Bangalore might be the second
city to have a production studio apart from Mumbai.
Murdoch will fly to Delhi from Mumbai and is slated to meet
the Prime Minister, the Infotech Minister Pramod Mahajan
apart from attending the "Janata Ki Adalat"
bash in the capital.
The shrewd businessman has made sure to make the most out
of his India trip and he is expected to make big announcements
within a few
See
more headlines
|
