LONDON -- News International PLC, controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, won a bitter takeover battle for William Collins PLC, one of Britain's last independent publishing houses, company executives said Friday.
Collins, which owns 50 percent of U.S publisher Harper and Row Inc., had hoped a 'white knight' bidder would emerge to top the Murdoch bid.
But a rival offer collapsed Wednesday when the French Groupe de la Cite publishers withdrew, clearing the way for Murdoch's improved $721 million offer.
News International, which owns Fox Broadcasting Co., TV Guide and newspapers in the United States and abroad, raised its $526 million offer by 37 percent after the intervention by Groupe de la Cite.
Ian Chapman, the 63-year-old chairman of Collins, described the original bid as 'ludicrously low.'
But the deal was final at $15.75 per share of common stock and $13.15 for each non-voting share when News International agreed to several conditions set by the Collins board.
'Obviously I am sad that we have not managed to keep our independence. We have, however, received the assurances that we sought regarding Collins' autonomy and editorial freedom,' said Chapman.
News International launched a failed bid for the 170-year-old publisher in 1981. That bid left Murdoch holding 41.7 percent of Collins shares.
'The difficulty is in realizing what (Murdoch) wants to do with Collins, because he is still taking on board the Triangle deal,' said Carol Spencer, publishing analyst at Charterhouse, the Liverpool-based investment bank advising News International.
Murdoch paid $2.8 for Radnor, Pa.-based Triangle Publications Inc., the parent of TV Guide last October.
'Whether he actually wants to consolidate as a major book publisher we can't say, but one could speculate that Collins may be a short term investment,' Spencer said.
One option for Murdoch was the sale of his stake in Collins, but analysts now believe he intends to sell the company as a single unit to maximize his profits.
Collins, which publishes a wide range of fiction, educational and reference books, has had pre-tax profits rise from $15.3 million in 1983 to $43.1 million in 1987.
But News International has accused the company of poor management, and many top executives have left -- some, ironically, to join News International.
The bid brought criticism from some Collins authors who believe the character and management of the publisher will change under Murdoch's management.
A source at Collins said Friday he thought 'there will certainly be a few (authors) who will leave.'
If any Collins authors, who include thriller writers Alistair Maclean and Len Deighton, as well as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, walked out, it could reduce the value of the company, sources said.
'There could be some difficulty for News if Collins' threatened author walkout materializes,' said Spencer. 'That would make it difficult for an asset valuation in six months time, because a publisher's authors are its assets.'
