Time Warner rejects offer by Rupert Murdoch

The media giant 21st Century Fox, the empire run by Rupert Murdoch, made an $80 billion takeover bid in recent weeks for Time Warner Inc. but was rebuffed.

Time Warner on Wednesday confirmed that it had rejected a cash and stock offer from 21st Century Fox, saying that it was not in the company’s best interests. The Time Warner statement said its own strategic plan would “create significantly more value.” It also pointed to regulatory risks in a merger and what it said was “uncertainty” over the value of nonvoting shares of 21st Century Fox. Unlike Time Warner, which has no controlling shareholder, 21st Century Fox is controlled by the Murdoch family, which has 39.4 percent of the voting rights of the Class B shares.

Murdoch, 83, over nearly five decades has built a global media juggernaut spanning studios, television channels and newspapers, in part, by pursuing bold deals that were often rebuffed at first by targets that would later acquiesce.

This story was originally published July 16, 2014 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Time Warner rejects offer by Rupert Murdoch."