The Americans who are trying to rescue Rupert Murdoch and News Corp from the News of the World phone hacking scandalDressed in an open-necked blue shirt and flanked by wife Wendi, it could have been just another day for the octogenarian media mogul.
But as he broke cover for the first time during last week's Allen & Co media conference – the invite-only retreat for the biggest players in the sector – he was besieged by camera crews and reporters.
Mr Murdoch was repeatedly asked to comment on events across the Atlantic, where one of News Corporation's most high profile divisions appeared to be coming apart at the seams.
"I made my statement yesterday and have nothing further to say," he said, before quickly departing behind the conference cordon.
This weekend he is flying into the UK to "take charge" of the hacking scandal which is threatening to engulf News International and has already led to the closure of The News of the World.
Mr Murdoch will be accompanied by Chase Carey, his number two, as the American owners of the UK assets ride in to take control. In terms of revenue and profits, News International is a "little local difficulty" for a global media group that gains its billions of pounds of profits from its TV interests, notably Fox in America and BSkyB in the UK.
But there is a growing fear that as News Corp's share price drifts downwards and BSkyB's falls more precipitously, the contagion effect of the UK problems might start affecting vital global ambitions.
The decision to close The News of the World was not taken lightly, only being finalised during a tense video-conference call with News Corp's board on Wednesday, the day before the public announcement.
The fact that News Corp's shares lost 5pc on Wednesday had focused minds. One Wall Street analyst wrote: "The News Corp phone-hack fiasco is the strangest bad news we've ever seen hit a stock."
The developing stream of revelations generated a slew of negative headlines such "Phonegate Fallout" and "Hacking scandal hits stock at News Corp" in the American media and it was clear that The News of the World rot had to be stopped before the contagion deepened, and, more importantly, hurt Murdoch's chances of buying the remaining 61pc of BSkyB that News Corp does not already own.
Mr Carey, a less sentimental "numbers man", is said to have been the key player in encouraging Mr Murdoch to cut down The News of the World.
"I think he made a good, calculated trade here," said Laura Martin, analyst at Needham & Co.
It appears that News Corp's American executives more clearly understand, as does James Murdoch, News Corp's head in the UK, that the newspaper divisions of the company are not going to be the engine for growth that television and movie interests will be.
Needham & Co. estimate that News Corp's entire newspaper division is on track to generate $956m (£595m) of earnings before interest and tax in the year just ended to June 30. Of that, it surmises that around 80pc will came from the Australian division, 10pc from US papers – including the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal – and the remaining 10pc from News International, which also publishes The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times. With The Sun the real earnings machine – accounting for an estimated 75pc of NI's earnings – she believes that The News of the World accounted for just $10m – or £6.2m – of profit.
"Mr Murdoch is hoping, I think, that by giving up $10m of earnings they can close a big transaction," Ms Martin said.
"He loves the newspaper business but he's not going to let these assets stand in the way of a $12bn [£7.5bn] purchase." She is not alone. Michael Corty, the Morningstar analyst who covers News Corp, believes The News of the World "was a small piece of the business".
He points out that although the US media giant – whose more prized assets include the Fox television network in the US and the Twentieth Century Fox film studio business – has never explicitly broken down how much the paper made in profit terms, "from a cost-benefit analysis, it made more sense to shut it down".
One of the driving forces in the decision is believed to have been the pressure from advertisers, who, by the middle of last week were abandoning The News of the World brand in increasing numbers. More dangerously, Renault announced late on Friday that it was pulling its advertising from all News International publications, a move which could cost the UK division £250,000.
"Once a number of big name advertisers start pulling out, there's a need to justify being in," says Wayne Arnold, co-founder of Profero, the digital marketing and advertising agency.
"If this situation is isolated to a few 'rogue traders', News International is strong enough to weather the storm. But if more revelations emerge, it could affect the overall NI brand and there may be a domino effect."
More importantly, of course, for News Corp is what effect the present revelations have on its proposed takeover of BSkyB. In the US, opinion seems to be divided as to whether or not it is a prize worth fighting for.
Jessica Reif Cohen, analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, argues that the question now is what the "ramifications" of the situation are for the acquisition.
"It does seem it would be difficult to link the acquisition to The News of the World situation," she says, in spite of the increasing noise from all political parties and the 156,000-plus submissions to the Department of Culture, which is considering the deal.
Barton Crockett, of investment bank Lazard, remains positive, but thinks some investors might like to see cash deployed elsewhere. "I'd love to see them buy it. But if not then a better use of cash would be to buy back its own stock."
He believes the company's TV networks business remains at its heart over the next five years, delivering "healthy earnings growth", with or without the BSkyB bolt-on.
Although the majority of larger investors appear to be holding their tongues on the matter, a number of smaller investors spoken to agree with Mr Crockett's assessment, given the uncertainty that now surrounds News Corp's UK operations.
A recent report from Wedbush Securities supported this idea, saying that if the BSkyB deal were to collapse, it "would increase investor focus on the deployment of the $12bn of cash on the balance sheet" at the end of March.
This remains a risk for Murdoch Senior. "The downside would be if it didn't go through, all that cash and investors have no idea what they might do with it," Mr Corty said.
Some experts are also beginning to question if the closure of The News of the World is a turning point for the group. "Investors would like these guys to pare back their newspaper exposure," Mr Crockett said.
Certainly, restructuring of at least the UK newspaper assets does not seem far off, with recent hints that the closure merely worked towards a longer-term plan to turn its UK titles into seven-day operations.
This is where Mr Carey comes in. "Chase is extremely grounded and logical and widely regarded as being a phenomenal operating executive," Ms Cohen said.
Mr Murdoch has also relied heavily on two of the sharpest legal minds in the US to help stem the flow of negative publicity.
Both members of News Corp's board, Joel Klein and Viet Dinh, are now overseeing the investigation. It is being led from the UK by group general manager Will Lewis, public relations head Simon Greenberg, and European general counsel Jeff Palker. Rebekah Brooks was removed from running the process on Friday evening.
The London-based trio are now reporting directly to Mr Klein, who joined the media conglomerate late last year after eight years running the New York school system.
A 64-year-old lawyer, he led the anti-trust case against Microsoft when he was at the Department of Justice. He said of the investigation this week: "I think my whole life's experience will bear on this."
Law professor Viet Dinh played a central role in 2001 in drafting the Patriot Act, the US government's legal response to the September 11 terrorist attacks that saw surveillance powers increase dramatically.Mr Dinh, who was born in Vietnam, teaches at Washington's Georgetown University and has sat on News Corp's board since 2004.
But it is the position of Murdoch's younger son James, that is perhaps most in question this weekend. The former chief executive of BSkyB who directly ran News International from 2007 until March, is due to arrive in New York later this summer to take up his new post as third in command of the $31bn media giant. But due to his connection with The News of the World fallout, it remains to be seen if he will succeed his father.
Others point to James's sister Elisabeth, who set up independent production company Shine, which was controversially bought by News Corp for £415m earlier this year. Although she stands to win if the BSkyB acquisition goes through – she is expected to take on a wider role in News Corp's UK TV business – she will also win if it does not, having not been tainted at all by the phone-hacking scandal.
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