NEW YORK — Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. has lost more than $8 billion in ?market value since new revelations in a phone hacking scandal were first ?reported two weeks ago.??
The conglomerate’s Class A stock closed at $18.06 before the July 4 holiday? in the U.S. — near a 52-week high of $18.35 set at the start of June. ??On Monday, the stock dropped another 4.3 percent to finish Monday’s trading? session at $14.97 after going as low as $14.76. That means the stock has ?lost more than 17 percent and dropped below the half-way mark between its ?52-week high and 52-week low of $11.91, which it reached last August.??
At Monday’s closing price, News Corp.’s market value stood at $39.65? billion, according to Bloomberg data. The market value is down by around $8? billion over the past two weeks.?? A Bloomberg News report on Monday calculated that the value of the Murdoch ?family’s stake in the company has dropped by almost $1 billion to about ?$4.96 billion over the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Monday said it is?considering a potential downgrade of its debt rating on News Corp., citing ?”the increased business and reputation risks” of the legal issues ?surrounding the phone hacking scandal. A debt rating downgrade would ?increase the company’s borrowing cost.?
Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai