News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch Tweets About Hurricane Sandy, Book Merger

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch late Monday tweeted about Hurricane Sandy as it was about to hit the U.S. East Coast and called the planned Random House-Penguin book merger a "faux merger disaster."

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"Full moon tonite will intensify storm. East Coast understandably obsessed," the media mogul wrote about Hurricane Sandy.

Murdoch also commented on a midtown Manhattan crane that collapsed on what is set to be the city's biggest condo skyscraper. "Toppling builder's crane 100 floors above Carnegie Hall making all nervous," he tweeted. "Real storm and wind yet to come. Pray okay."

The News Corp. boss late Monday also commented on the newly announced giant book deal between German media company Bertelsmann's Random House unit and Pearson's Penguin of Britain.

"Bertelsmann-Penguin faux merger disaster," Murdoch said. "Two publishers trying to contract while saying opposite. Let's hear from authors and agents!"

In response to a tweet that he was just bitter that News Corp.'s last-minute play for Penguin hadn't succeeded, Murdoch wrote: "No, not bitter. Heard of deal last Thursday night. Position will take months to resolve, we may or may not offer. Love books."
 
Earlier in the day, Murdoch had tweeted about one of his favorite topics - the U.S. presidential election. "Gallup still has Romney five points in front, others much less," he said. "Seven more days of suspense. Personally expect low turnout."

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai