Murdoch's Son Back In The Media Game With Whopper Buyout Offer

Murdoch's Son Back In The Media Game With Whopper Buyout Offer

Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer, scions of Australia's two biggest publishing dynasties, offered A$3.3 billion ($2.9 billion) to buy Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd., the country's second-largest media company.

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch's eldest son and Packer, Australia's richest man, agreed to pay cash and stock of A$4.80 a share, Sydney-based Consolidated Media said in a statement today. That's 24 percent higher than the stock's last traded price.

Consolidated, whose holdings include Australia's largest pay-television operator and biggest magazine publisher, would give 36-year-old Lachlan his first media executive role since quitting as News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer in July 2005. For Packer, who owns 38 percent of the company, it's his third reorganization of the business empire he inherited from his father Kerry more than two years ago.

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