News Corp's Murdoch to hold onto cash until recovery

News Corp Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch said the media company will wait until the economy recovers before considering acquisitions, preserving its more than $6 billion in cash in the recession.

“I don’t see an end to the downturn, and I can’t predict when we’ll start to see a rebound,” Murdoch said in an interview on Friday at the Allen & Co media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. “It’s better to hold onto what we’ve got until it’s clearer when there’s an end.”

News Corp, the owner of the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, built up its holdings of cash and equivalents during the worst recession since World War II to $6.05 billion as of March 31 from $3.24 billion a year earlier, according to regulatory filings.

TV stations and newspapers have been hit by an advertising slump, leading the company to forecast a 30 percent decline in operating income for the fiscal year ended June 30.

Murdoch said in a separate interview that he isn’t interested in buying Twitter Inc, the San Francisco-based short-form Web messaging service. Jenna Sampson, a spokeswoman for Twitter, didn’t respond to e-mails seeking comment.

News Corp, based in New York, gained 8 cents to $8.23 at 4 pm New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have lost 43 percent in the past 12 months, while the 16-member Standard & Poor’s 500 Media Index has fallen 30 per cent.