You'd think, from reading Michael Arrington's latest item, that Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate was tearing itself apart over its $12m investment in Youtube competitor, Roo. The parent company, News Corporation, bypassed the unit, Fox Interactive, which has been responsible for Murdoch's signature web deals. Disarray, since the defection of Ross Levinsohn, the Fox Interactive boss who led the Myspace deal. Except the Techcrunch publisher's narrative, which probably relies on Levinsohn himself, is pretty much all wrong. For a start, nobody makes big deals at News Corp except for Murdoch himself; Levinsohn was fired; Fox Interactive's top management did know about the Roo deal; and News Corp management is way too cynical about the prospects for online video startups to make a big cash investment in Roo. Says an exec who has spoken to Murdoch: "Basically, Roo agreed to give News Corp some free shares and warrants in their company in exchange for News Corp continuing to use services it already receives from Roo. News Corp didn't write a check and doesn't have to use the services."

Contact information for this author is not available.