Murdoch 'Going Nowhere' As News Corp Profits

Rupert Murdoch has said his role as chairman and chief executive of News Corp "won't be open in the near future" as his company announced a rise in annual profits.

The 80-year-old said he had the full backing of the News Corp board to stay in the top job, despite taking criticism for his handling of the phone hacking scandal.

"We are acting decisively in the matter and will do whatever is necessary to prevent something like this from ever occurring again," he told investors.

Mr Murdoch expressed confidence in his son James, News International chairman, but said his position would go to chief operating officer Chase Carey if he were to "go under a bus".

He added that any succession decision would ultimately be up to the News Corp board, which he claimed was "very often critical".

The News Corporation chief's comments came as the group announced a rise in annual profits to �1.69bn, apparently side-stepping damage in the wake of the phone-hacking crisis.

The profits for the year ending in June beat Wall Street analysts' expectations and sent News Corp shares up by around 5%.

Sky's City editor Mark Kleinman said the good performance of the company could largely be attributed to its television interests.

In the results statement, Mr Murdoch said that while the fourth quarter of the financial year had been a good quarter from a financial point of view, the company had faced challenges relating to the News Of The World.

He told investors: "I've run this company for more than 50 years; the kind of behaviour that happened in that newsroom has no place in News Corp."

Mr Murdoch said the company was "cooperating with all investigations," indicating for the first time that the probe was widening to other News Corp operations.

During the fallout of the phone-hacking scandal, News Corp announced it was dropping its bid for BSkyB, a proposal which had been referred to the Competition Commission.

Sky's Mark Kleinman said: "What there isn't in this News Corporation statement is any news about what the company plans to do with all of the money it is now no longer spending on its bid for BSkyB.

"There is also no direct information about corporate governance changes at News Corp, which is something some shareholders have begun to demand in the wake of this phone-hacking scandal becoming quite so serious."