News Corporation Ups Premiere Stake

NEW YORK, February 22:
News Corporation has raised its stake in German pay-TV giant Premiere from
14.58 percent to 19.9 percent.

News Corp. acquired the
initial 14.58 percent interest from Unity Media last month. “We’re looking
forward to working constructively with Premiere’s management on the growth and
future direction of the business,” said James Murdoch, News Corporation’s
chairman and chief executive for Europe and Asia. 



In other news at News
Corp., SKY Italia’s COO, Mark Williams, has been appointed CFO for Europe and
Asia, reporting to James Murdoch. He will take up his new position at the end
of March. Stephen Daintith, currently CFO of News International Ltd, is moving
to New York to take up the position of CFO of Dow Jones. Williams will assume
Daintith's duties as CFO of News International as well as acting as CFO across
News Corporation’s operations in Europe and Asia, supporting SKY Italia, STAR
TV and News Corp Europe. He will be based in London.

—By Mansha Daswani