Microsoft appears poised to purchase a 3.5-percent stake in News Corp's Sky Global Network for more than $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing people familiar with the situation. Sky Global combines all of News Corp's satellite services, including Britain's BSkyB and Asia's STAR system. News Corp had been delaying an IPO for Star Global given the depressed conditions of most media stocks. "It'd be good for the prospects of the company that someone like Microsoft was prepared to put in fairly chunky money,'' Bruce Smith, money manager at Zurich Financial Services, told Bloomberg News.

Source: Studio Briefing