It is hard to read Rupert Murdoch's tea leaves.
He must have wanted to buy the Sky cash cow so he could back News International into it and allow the rather better Sky management to take over the rabble that has led NI.
Then, all hell let lose and News International feels headless and lost.
RM is a newspaper man through and through. He loves print. He loves the power it brings him. Television, film and online fail to give him the same pride or smell. He hates what has gone on.
RM has also had a history of always coming from the outside into the middle or rather seeing the future and waiting for everyone else to come to him. There's no-one like him in the world. Watching first the News of The World fiasco and now The Sun must cut him to the quick. What does he do next?
For sure he will not be able to buy Sky in the foreseeable future. His newspapers need too much financial support but he is reluctant to give them up (even the Wall Street Journal was a purchase too far).
I suspect he will be forced to sell his Sky shares. We shall see.