News Corporation has confirmed it intends to separate its publishing and media and entertainment businesses into two publicly traded companies.
The firm's board voted unanimously to approve the plan after the firm revealed it was considering the split earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal said.
The move will see the group's 39% stake in broadcasting giant BSkyB, the parent company of Sky News, separately listed from the embattled UK newspaper arm News International (NI).
NI has been the focus of the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of News Corp's News Of The World tabloid paper.
On Tuesday, News Corp, whose chairman and CEO is Rupert Murdoch, said it was "considering a restructuring to separate its business into two distinct publicly traded companies", prompting its shares to jump as much as 8% on Wall Street.
In London, BSkyB shares raced 3% higher amid market speculation that the split will raise the possibility of News Corp reviving its plans to take full control of BSkyB.
It had to scrap a deal to buy the remaining stake of BSkyB in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, but a restructuring has the potential to effectively quarantine the scandal-hit papers from the rest of the group and pave the way for the deal to be resurrected.
The move will see News Corp's film and television businesses - including 20th Century Fox and the Fox broadcasting network - grouped in one company.
More to follow...
