From Agence France Presse:
London - Shares of News Corp., Rupert Murdoch's Media empire, plummeted on Friday amid concern that the British phone-hacking scandal would thwart it's bid to take full control of pay-TV giant BskyB.
News Corp. Stock was down 4.1 percent on the NASDAQ stock exchange as of 1630 GMT. It has shed More than 7 percent since Tuesday, slashing the Company's market capitalization by more than three billion dollars.
http://www.google.com/...
The market is speaking! Let's hope it's only the beginning.
USA Today is reporting that there are MORE REVELATIONS to come, including the allegation that News of the World deleted MILLIONS of emails in an effort to hinder Scotland Yard's investigation:
http://content.usatoday.com/...
UPDATE 1:
Rupert Murdoch will fly back to London tomorrow (Saturday) to deal with the growing scandal. Earlier today, Prime Minister Cameron said that James Murdoch, Rupert's son, should be investigated for his role in the bribes to police.. The Independent has put together this handy-dandy list of today's gob-smacking developments:
*Police are investigating allegations that a News International (NI) executive deleted millions of emails from an internal archive, in an apparent attempt to obstruct inquiries into phone hacking.
*Andy Coulson was arrested on suspicion of bribing police officers and conspiracy to phone hack, and Clive Goodman, the NOTW's former royal correspondent, was held in a dawn raid on suspicion of bribing police officers. More arrests are expected.
*Mr Cameron's most senior officials were warned before the last election about connections between Mr Coulson and Jonathan Rees, a private investigator paid up to £150,000 a year to illegally trawl for personal information. But Mr Cameron appointed Mr Coulson as his director of communications.
*A judge-led public inquiry will take place to investigate phone hacking. Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch are prepared to give evidence on phone hacking under oath.
*Ms Brooks was stripped of control of NI's internal investigation and faced calls for her resignation from the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
*Wapping sources warned of worse phone-hacking revelations to come.
full article, titled, "Is this Britain's Watergate?" here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/...
UPDATE 2:
(From The Telegraph) According to former Home Secretary and Member of Parliament Alan Johnson, James Murdoch, son of Rupert, may well be prosecuted for violation of the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act 2000, which covers the “criminal liability of directors”:
Mr Johnson pointed to Mr Murdoch’s statement on Thursday in which Mr Murdoch said: “The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong. The company paid out-of-court settlements approved by me. I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret.”
Speaking on the BBC’s This Week programme, Mr Johnson said: “Why is that important? The two people banged up were banged up under the Ripa Act — the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act — Section 1.
“Section 79 talks about the role of company directors etc, and talks about consent, connivance, neglect. So even if you weren’t involved, even if you weren’t conniving, there is some issue where you did not know what you should have known, that brings you into the terms of the Act. I think that is significant.”
Telegraph article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...