Rupert Murdoch Drops BSkyB Bid as Phone Hack Investigation Looms

Rupert Murdoch Withdraws BSkyB Takeover Bid as Phone Hacking Scandal Grows

News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch has withdrawn his $12 billion bid to take over BSkyB, as the UK Parliament rallies against him. Even Murdoch's friends in Whitehall, including Prime Minister David Cameron, are re-evaluating their allegiances.

• Rupert Murdoch Summoned to Parliament over Phone Hacking

Cameron, well aware that his own career is on the line, called for a judicial inquiry into the phone hacking and bribery scandal, as it became clear that the British public would never support the BSkyB takeover.

Parliament voted unanimously against the BSkyB bid, though the vote was largely pointless, since the bid was dead anyway. However, former PM Gordon Brown accused the civil service of hindering his own calls for an investigation into News International. He's saying that the Tories continue sucking up to Murdoch, NOTW notwithstanding.

Meanwhile, other branches of News Corp. are struggling to distance themselves from News International, which is widely derided as "toxic". News Ltd, the Australian arm of News Corp., has launched an internal financial review to verify that it has been spending its money on "legitimate services", but will Australian regulators trust a clean result?

Rupert Murdoch: 'A Touch of Evil'

The Telegraph is analyzing the NOTW saga on the fly, describing Rupert Murdoch as a genius with "a touch of evil". His rule over the English-speaking news world seemed destined to go on forever, but that is no longer a given. Murdoch is not an idiot: he'll sacrifice Rebekah Brooks first, and then, if absolutely necessary, News International (a loss leader) if it means saving his larger empire and the career of his son and heir apparent. Of course, it won't come to that. A few execs will lose their jobs, and apologetic noises will be made, but the Murdoch empire won't crumble. It will be weakened, though.

As for News Corp's reach into North America, it depends on how pissed off people still are about 9/11: News International allegedly tried to gain access to September 11 victims' phones, just as they did with tween murder victims in Britain.

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