AS IS usually the case in the less than transparent world ofRupert Murdoch's business affairs, we may never know the full storyof Mark Booth's abrupt departure as chief executive of BSkyB.However, there are a number of reasons for thinking the officialversion - that he is off to spearhead Mr Murdoch's assault on theInternet - may be reasonably close to the truth.
Mr Murdoch has three good reasons for feeling less than happy withMr Booth. He's already blamed Mr Booth's predecessor, Sam Chisholm,for Sky's failure to obtain regulatory approval for its ManchesterUnited takeover; the way Mr Murdoch sees it, Mr Chisholm's combativestyle rubbed the regulators so much up the wrong way that they werebound to be poisoned against Sky. But Mr Booth was the man whofronted the bid and Sky's fruitless attempt to get it past the MMC,so he cannot be seen as entirely blameless.
Another is the less than spectacular launch of Sky Digital. Offto a slow and plodding start, Sky has failed to deliver the earlyknock- out blow to ONdigital Mr Murdoch hoped for. And a third isSky's failure to gain any kind of a foothold in continental pay TV.In truth, this latter setback may have more to do with Mr Murdochhimself than Mr Booth, but a good boss never blames himself, does he.For all of these reasons, Mr Murdoch might have thought the timeright for a replacement. All the same, this doesn't appear to be aMurdoch axing in the old style. What is interesting about thischangeover is that the choice of successor is not to be Mr Murdoch'salone, or that's the spin Sky is giving to the whole thing, anyway.As far as we know, this is the first time independent directors havehad any kind of a proper say in the future of Sky's management, whichhitherto has been run as if a wholly- owned subsidiary of MrMurdoch's News Corp.Furthermore, Mr Booth isn't leaving the Murdoch fold. As manyformer Murdoch executives can testify, it is usual practice in theMurdoch empire to be shifted into some sort of departure lounge jobbefore being exited entirely, and that may indeed be Mr Booth'seventual fate. Even so, it does seem genuinely to have been the casethat Mr Booth received an offer from Bill Gates at Microsoft, and MrMurdoch made an effort to keep him by constructing a similar postwithin his own company.That effort, moreover, seems to be coming at a high price. Evenfor Mr Murdoch, $300m of risk equity is hardly chicken-feed, and theSilicon Valley venture capital market, which seems to be where MrBooth and the money are heading, is already an overcrowded one. MrMurdoch's interest in the Net is quite a specialist one - interactivedigital TV - but even so, he's late into the game. He's also onrecord as saying Internet companies are hugely overvalued and thatthe web will end up destroying more companies than it creates.Which possibly explains why Mr Murdoch has to play the Internetgame, however expensive it proves in the short run. Any company withglobal media pretentions going forward has to have a stake in theInternet, for defensive reasons if no other. The Internet is notjust an alternative means of distribution, it also threatens togobble up a very significant share of worldwide advertising revenues.Whether Mr Booth was pushed or jumped, Mr Murdoch certainly needssomebody to bolster its Internet ambitions.
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