All that's needed now is final approval by the Federal Court of Australia and news Corporation will be reincorporated in the United States. The company announced yesterday that shareholders had voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move, with more than 91% of ordinary shares and 96% of preferred shares voting yes (both figures exclude shares held by the Murdoch family and its associates).

"We firmly believe that having our primary stock listing on the NYSE will make news Corporation a more attractive investment for a far larger pool of potential investors. The move to the United States will give the company far greater financial flexibility with which to pursue our goals," said CEO Rupert Murdoch as he announced the results at the company's annual shareholders meeting in Adelaide, Australia.

Commenting on near-term business prospects, Murdoch told reporters that TV advertising this year is up, but by less than expected, while some other areas of the international media conglomerate are performing better than expected. He said DirecTV, the US satellite TV company now controlled by News Corporation, is on course to hit 14 million subscribers by the end of this year and should hit cash flow break even sometime next year.

At CIBC World markets, analyst Michael Gallant said he expects News Corporation to soon finish recouping last week's 5.7% stock price decline now that uncertainty about the incorporation issue has been removed. However, he isn't expecting a sustained rally until the time draws nearer for News Corporation to be included in the S&P 500 index. He sees March of 2005 as the earliest date for that to happen.

RBR observation:
As we've noted previously, this reincorporation won't change anything about how News Corporation is managed. Its main office has long been in New York, its majority owned Fox Entertainment has always been a US company and Rupert Murdoch long ago became a US citizen (and the FCC ruled that his company was eligible to own US broadcast licenses). So now its legal corporate home will be Delaware. The move disappointed some Australians as a wounding of their national pride, but in the end even most Aussie shareholders voted in favor of the reincorporation. News Corporation is an international media giant and the reincorporation is simply a recognition of the fact that the financial capital of the world is New York (although its business-friendly laws make Delaware the legal home of most companies who want to raise big bucks on Wall Street).