Murdoch facing increased opposition from Hughes

Shareholders in Hughes Electronics, which operates the DirecTV satellite service, would prefer to see the company merge with rival EchoStar than become part of Rupert Murdoch‘s Sky Global satellite company, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. Jeff Strauss, head of Denver-based Windover Capital, which owns Hughes and EchoStar shares, told Bloomberg that he and other Hughes shareholders are upset over the fact that the News Corp offer does not include a premium for Hughes shareholders. “I can’t find a shareholder in America that wants to vote News Corp. in,” Strauss said. “Why would I want News Corp. if they aren’t going to pay me anything?” Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch on Monday took issue with Sen. John McCain’s description of a DirecTV-Sky Global merger as “a potential consolidation of power not seen since William Randolph Hearst.” In an interview on CNBC, Murdoch said that he had spoken to McCain and that he told him, “If we get DirecTV — which we haven’t got, we’re not gonna get them, we’re gonna merge with them — we’ll still be a minnow compared to AOL Time Warner.”