Donald Trump is keeping faith with Rupert Murdoch’s money machine Fox News, but our home-grown media mogul surely would be noticing the barbarian at the gates of his precious print empire, News Corp.

Strictly speaking, his property listing empire REA Group is not part of News Corp.

But News’ controlling stake in the wildly successful property play is a crucial supporting pillar for its challenged media business – much like Nine Entertainment’s majority stake in Domain is reckoned to help keep it safe from potential predators and a break-up.

REA Group’s success has helped underpin Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.Credit: GC Images

But REA’s cosy dominance of Domain – and the lucrative real estate listings duopoly – has been challenged by US group CoStar’s bid for the latter.

Nine Entertainment – the owner of this publication – has indicated it will support an offer at the current price, and the numbers look pretty simple.

The offer, which was raised to $4.43 a share last month, would represent a 42 per cent premium on Domain’s closing share price on February 20, and represents a multiple of earnings that compares favourably with global deals in this sector.

But the financial market numbers also paint a........

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