"In the aftermath of the Yahoo and Microsoft dust up, News Corp. says it is staying out of the mess.
News Corp. (NWS) had previously been linked to Yahoo (YHOO) and then switched camps to join Microsoft (MSFT) in its pursuit to acquire Yahoo. Microsoft eventually went it alone and four days ago, the behemoth walked away from its $47.5 billion offer with plans to look into alternatives to beef up its online ad unit. News Corp., which owns social networking site MySpace, shot down any rumors that it will partner with Microsoft.
"We're not in discussions with Microsoft. There are no discussions," said Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of News Corp. during an earnings call Wednesday with shareholders.
Chernin said that the company holds "regular conversations with everyone in the space," but has not held any talks with Yahoo or Time Warner's AOL (TWX) in the last "couple weeks." Added CEO Rupert Murdoch, "Nor have I."
In an effort to stave off Microsoft's unsolicited bid, Yahoo said it was pursuing other deals like partnering with AOL or Google (GOOG). At one point, Yahoo also considered a tie-up with News Corp.'s MySpace. With its massive and highly-engaged audience, a MySpace partnership was seen as way to attract advertisers and help bring economies of scale for either Microsoft and Yahoo. Though Microsoft has a minor stake in Facebook, neither have developed a major social networking presence."
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