The buoyant demand led parent company News
Corp. to boost the number of shares being offered by
47 percent.

News Corp., which also owns The Post, sold 124.8
million shares of Class A Common Stock at $22.50
apiece. It had expected to sell 85 million shares for
about $1.9 billion.

The public will now own 18.8 percent of the new
company's common stock, rather than the projected
13.4 percent.

Trading of the shares is expected to begin today on
the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker
symbol FOX.

At $22.50, shares were priced at the mid-point of the
expected $21-to-$24-a-share range.

Proceeds from the IPO - the largest media offering
ever - will be used to pay down debt, buy back
shares, and for general corporate purposes.

News Corp. decided to offer shares in its
entertainment business to highlight the value of those
assets and bolster the value of all News Corp. shares.

The new unit includes: the Fox Filmed Entertainment
Group, including Twentieth Century Fox, its film and
video affiliates, and Twentieth Century Fox Television;
the Fox Television Group, which includes Fox
Broadcasting Co. and 22 television stations; Cable
Networks, which include interests in five pay television
cable networks; and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Class B voting shares will be controlled by News
Corp., giving the parent 98.5 percent voting control
over the unit.

News Corp. originally reserved the right to offer up to
20 percent of the new unit. But the company scaled
back that plan to a 13.4 percent stake.

Earlier this week, Fox said profits doubled to $57
million, or 10 cents a share, in the first fiscal quarter.

The company had a strong quarter thanks to a string
of movie hits. Chief among them was There's
Something About Mary, which has brought in $170
million at the U.S. box office so far.

Other hit films included The X-Files, Dr. Dolittle, and
Ever After.

The results also include some of the domestic video
sales of Titanic, while international video sales are to
be recorded in later periods.

Fox's first-quarter revenues jumped 22 percent to
$1.8 billion from $1.48 billion in the same period a
year earlier.

News Corp. shares closed at 27, off . The Fox pricing
was announced after the markets closed.

-- Midknight - 11/11/98