Media giant Mr Rupert Murdoch has predicted that his burgeoning News Corp media empire, which owns a string of newspapers and television companies around the world, would in the future reap most of its business from the Internet. "Eventually we will get to the point where Internet-related activity will account for the majority of our value, no doubt about it," Mr Murdoch said at the launch of his latest Internet venture.

His newest Internet venture, e-partners, unveiled a tie-up with the Japanese investment house Softbank to spread their electronic commerce across Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India.

The companies said in a statement that they would jointly fund an investment of $50 million (€48.8 million) to create a joint venture, named eVentures.