News Corp.'s U.S. Hacking Problem

How one Murdoch ad firm may have gone too far when it tried to dominate its competition

Photo-Illustration by John Ritter for TIME; MURDOCH: Paul Hackett / REUTERS

There was nothing friendly in the message coming over the fax machine to News Corp. chief financial officer David DeVoe, CEO Rupert Murdoch's right-hand man. On March 3, 2004, famed investor and insurance magnate William Berkley sent the confidential fax to DeVoe. The subject: computer hacking and other allegedly anticompetitive behavior by a News Corp. subsidiary against Floorgraphics, a New Jersey--based in-store-advertising pioneer in which Berkley was a major investor. "We have just discovered evidence that our proprietary and password-protected computer files of past, current and upcoming floor ad programs has been breached by [News Corp. subsidiary] News America [Marketing], as...

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