Murdoch's company has suffered a stock plunge, is facing questions over future leadership and is under an FBI investigation.
Now, the business ethos of another arm of News Corp. could deepen the controversy and raise eyebrows about the media mogul's entire corporate culture.
News America Marketing, an in-store coupon and newspaper ad insert marketing business, has been hauled into U.S. courts several times over unsavory practices that include hacking into the computers of competitors.
In one of the lawsuits, New Jersey-based Floorgraphics charged that News America attacked Floorgraphics directly by breaking into a password-protected computer system to acquire sensitive proprietary information, including past and future contracts.
The company claimed it had lost several big-name contracts because of News America's tactics.
In another lawsuit, rival Valassis described a scene from the movie "The Untouchables" in which mobster Al Capone beats an enemy to death with a baseball bat. It said Paul Carlucci, then the chief operating officer of News America, showed the scene to his employees to get his point across: that News America employees will tackle their work with "unbridled aggression."
"The selected scene is a perfect metaphor for the business practices both expected and in fact being employed (by News America) to illegally leverage its market dominance," Valassis said in its federal lawsuit.
In Minnesota, Insignia Systems Inc. filed an anti-trust claim seeking restitution for millions of dollars it said it lost because of the behavior of News America Marketing.
In these cases, Murdoch's company attempted to smooth over its problems by settling lawsuits with millions of dollars and, in the case of Floorgraphics, buying out the company.
The business news website Bnet described the acquisition as "more like a face-saving gesture for News America than a real deal."
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-19/us/news.corporation.troubles_1_rebekah-brooks-news-america-marketing-milly-dowler?_s=PM:US
Now, the business ethos of another arm of News Corp. could deepen the controversy and raise eyebrows about the media mogul's entire corporate culture.
News America Marketing, an in-store coupon and newspaper ad insert marketing business, has been hauled into U.S. courts several times over unsavory practices that include hacking into the computers of competitors.
In one of the lawsuits, New Jersey-based Floorgraphics charged that News America attacked Floorgraphics directly by breaking into a password-protected computer system to acquire sensitive proprietary information, including past and future contracts.
The company claimed it had lost several big-name contracts because of News America's tactics.
In another lawsuit, rival Valassis described a scene from the movie "The Untouchables" in which mobster Al Capone beats an enemy to death with a baseball bat. It said Paul Carlucci, then the chief operating officer of News America, showed the scene to his employees to get his point across: that News America employees will tackle their work with "unbridled aggression."
"The selected scene is a perfect metaphor for the business practices both expected and in fact being employed (by News America) to illegally leverage its market dominance," Valassis said in its federal lawsuit.
In Minnesota, Insignia Systems Inc. filed an anti-trust claim seeking restitution for millions of dollars it said it lost because of the behavior of News America Marketing.
In these cases, Murdoch's company attempted to smooth over its problems by settling lawsuits with millions of dollars and, in the case of Floorgraphics, buying out the company.
The business news website Bnet described the acquisition as "more like a face-saving gesture for News America than a real deal."
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-19/us/news.corporation.troubles_1_rebekah-brooks-news-america-marketing-milly-dowler?_s=PM:US
