News Corp tries to buy online phone company

MEDIA mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is understood to have held talks with internet telecom software company Skype.

The deal was worth €2.5 billion, but negotiations broke down, according to weekend reports.

The London Independent newspaper, citing unnamed well-placed sources, said the talks between Skype Technologies and News Corp fell apart last month, just before Mr Murdoch’s son Lachlan quit his father’s empire.