[Horizon]

It's very mixed signals he's giving out, isn't it?

I don't know for sure, but I think his takeover of Sky will be blocked and of course when we talk about Sky now, it's not just a UK company anymore, but pan-European. If he can't control that, perhaps he thinks its time to throw in the towel.

There are other things as well, inheritance being foremast on his mind. He's old and has two sons, the daughter is out of the running. Before all the current fiasco, James was favourite to take over the overall reigns, but now it seems Lachlan is top dog.

Other things too like News Corp's largest shareholder after the Murdoch's, a Saudi prince, has sold his entire shareholding. Perhaps he knows something the rest of us don't. Also lots of things going on with American newspapers changing hands and Murdoch must be dying to get in on that "action."

But the main reason that Murdoch cites for selling most of his company is one of scale, of course what he really means is domination. Fox is very big today even in the new Netflix/Amazon/Apple world, but where as Murdoch used to be the big fish in the small pond, he now finds himself still a big fish, but in a lake.

Media pundits suggest the AT&T/Time Warner merger will go ahead. Comcast already gobbled up NBC Universal. So the consolidation of Hollywood with telcos and other content companies is showing no signs of abating. Don't forget John Malone is at the centre of this too.

No doubt the current 6 major Hollywood companies will soon be 3 and Apple will be in a position to buy whatever the hell it wants and throw as much cash as it wants to create the next Game of Thrones or Star Wars like franchise. Murdoch knows this and doesn't wish to be outgunned in what was a little pond he once dominated.