M&A

2 November, 2009

News Corp may drop Travel Channel bid-source

NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - News Corp (NWSA.O) may drop its bid for the Travel Channel because parent company Cox Enterprises wants $1.1 billion for the cable channel, a price that the media conglomerate thinks is too expensive, a source with knowledge of the bids said on Monday.

News Corp and Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI.N) as of last week were considered to be the lead bidders for the Travel Channel, other sources previously told Reuters.

Last week, Cox was contemplating selling a 65 percent stake in the channel, keeping 35 percent, and running it as a joint venture, those sources said.

Officials at the three companies declined to comment. (Reporting by Robert MacMillan. Additional reporting by Anupreeta Das and Paul Thomasch; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://www.reuters.com