Fox stock offer yields $2.8bn

FOX ENTERTAINMENT shares rose 14 per cent in early trading on Wall Street after the producer of The Simpsons and The X-Files raised $2.81bn (pounds 1.7bn) in the third-biggest US initial stock sale ever. News Corp yesterday sold almost 20 per cent of Fox, or 124.8 million shares, at $22.50 each. News Corp chairman, Rupert Murdoch, boosted the IPO by almost 50 per cent to raise cash to repay some of its $9bn in debt.

This week Fox said its first-quarter profit doubled on hit movies, such as this summer's hit There's Something About Mary, which has taken in about $170m in the US and Canada, and the blockbuster Titanic (above).