News Corp set to expand online presence with Australian property site

LONDON – Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is tabling a £52m takeover bid for online property listings site Realestate.com.au less than a month after buying US internet group Intermix Media for £330m.

News Corp raised its stake in Real Estate to 43.7% and offered A$2 (86p) cash a share for the remaining shares.

The real estate  site provides services to the real-estate industry and has online listings of homes and land for sale and is one of Australia's 20 most-visited websites.

Last month, News Corp payed $580m (£330m) to acquire US internet group Intermix Media, which operates Myspace.com, the fifth most popular portal in terms of page views in the US.

The portal is part of a network of 30 sites run by Intermix that attracts more than 27m unique monthly users and, according to News Corp, served 8% of all ads on the internet in June. The acquisition will nearly double News Corp's unique monthly users to 45m.

News Corp has been widely expected to expand its online interests since February, when Murdoch gathered his top executives in New York to discuss how to react to the internet's rising popularity.

"The threat of losing print advertising dollars to online media is very real, in fact, it's already happening, particularly in classifieds," Murdoch said in a speech to newspaper editors in April.

Last month, News Corp announced the formation of Fox Interactive Media, a new unit that will develop Fox's entertainment, news and sports brands across the web to offer a richer online experience.

Veteran media and interactive executive Ross Levinsohn was named president of the Los Angeles-based business. Additionally, veteran Fox News executive Bert Solivan joined as executive vice-president.

Fox Interactive is now responsible for the growing stable of interactive assets from all Fox divisions -- including foxsports.com, foxnews.com and fox.com.

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