The One-Man War Machine

Return to Hearst 2.0: The Battle for Content Rages Continues

Whatever conclusions can be drawn from Murdoch's WSJ play, outspoken dot-com billionaire Mark Cuban seems to think Murdoch is the only guy in the room who seems to understand convergence: a buzzword media moguls devoured like candy in the 1990s and promptly forgot after the bubble burst.

"Riddle me this, Batman: Rupert Murdoch has figured out that print and TV can be combined to be a vertical news organization and is willing to pay $5 billion to do it," Cuban wrote on his blog. "Why has no one else realized the value of combining big news brands and organizations?"

According to Cuban, Murdoch's plan makes a great deal of sense. What seems odd to Cuban is why the likes of CBS aren't snapping up The New York Times?

But perhaps Fortune editor David Kirkpatrick had it right when he observed that Murdoch's MySpace buy is simply further proof that the mogul can spot trends light-years ahead of the pack. If that's the case, Murdoch's next big acquisition might be a mystery, but it will certainly be worth watching.

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Michael Estrin is associate editor, iMediaConnection. Read full bio.