News Corp. Offloads Macrovision Stock

SANTA CLARA/NEW YORK, June
6: Macrovision Solutions Corporation announced today that News Corporation has
sold off its 19-percent stake in the company, which recently merged with
Gemstar-TV Guide International.

The move marks the end of
a saga that stretches back to 1988, when News Corp. acquired a stake in
Triangle Publishing, the publisher of TV Guide. In 2000, News Corp. led the combination of TV
Guide with Gemstar, a provider of
electronic programming-guide technology, in a $14.2-billion deal. News Corp.
owned 41 percent of the combined company. It proved to be a problematic deal
for News Corp., which was forced to take a multibillion-dollar write-down on
its investment in Gemstar-TV Guide International in 2002. The following year,
Gemstar-TV Guide’s then CEO, Henry Yuen, was fired for financial
irregularities. He was convicted on securities fraud in 2006. Gemstar-TV Guide
was then sold to Macrovision at the end of 2007 in a $2.8-billion deal.

According to Macrovision,
News Corp.’s remaining 19-percent stake was sold to existing and new
institutional investors.

—By Mansha Daswani