News Corp’s Levinsohn was caught raising roll-up fund

November 30, 2006 | Matt Marshall | Comments |

So you thought Ross Levinsohn, the News Corp exec who saw his stature grow after masterminding the acquisition of MySpace, left voluntarily?

So did we.

AlwaysOn’s Tony Perkins, however, provides the real scoop (click on image).

According to Perkins, Levinsohn (pictured left) was forced out when News Corp discovered that Levinsohn was raising money to start his own venture fund. VentureBeat confirmed this Thursday with someone who had talked with Levinsohn.

Here’s what Perkins tells the D7TV interviewer: “He got raising money for another deal. So the chief operating officer Peter Chernin, who works for Rupert as his right hand manâ€”when his kids aren’t running the place, called Ross into his office and said, ‘Is this true, that you’re raising this half a billion dollar roll-up fund?…And he [Chernin] goes, ‘Are you either in or your out?’ And he [Levinsohn] said, ‘Well, I guess I’m out.”

(Via Dealbreaker.)

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