Twenty-First Century Fox, the media empire run by Rupert Murdoch, made an $80 billion takeover bid in recent weeks for Time Warner but was rebuffed, people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. The bold approach could put Time Warner in play and might again ignite a reshaping of the media industry, prompting a new spate of mega-mergers among the nation's largest entertainment companies. Mr. Murdoch has built a global media juggernaut over nearly five decades spanning studios, television channels and newspapers, in part, by pursuing bold deals that were often rebuffed at first by the targets of his overtures, only to later acquiesce.

The Time Warner Center in New York City. Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Together, Fox and Time Warner would become a colossus with an array of television networks and channels like Fox, Fox News, FX, TNT and TBS; the premium subscription channel HBO, movie studios like Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers and other high-profile outlets. It would also combine Fox's growing sports business with the broadcast rights that Time Warner owns for professional and college basketball and Major League Baseball, among other sports.

The combined company would have total revenue of $65 billion. As part of Fox's proposal to buy Time Warner, people briefed on the proposal said, Fox indicated that it would sell CNN to head off potential antitrust concerns since Fox News competes directly with CNN. Putting CNN on the auction block would likely stir up a bidding war for the news channel; both CBS and ABC, a unit of the Walt Disney Company, have long been seen as interested suitors. More from The New York Times:

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At hospital, its ex-CEO finds lucrative work Fox first approached Time Warner in early June, these people said. Chase Carey, the president of Fox and a longtime top lieutenant to Mr. Murdoch, met privately with Time Warner's chief executive, Jeff Bewkes, these people said. Later that month, Fox delivered a formal takeover proposal worth $85 in stock and cash for each Time Warner share.

At the time, the bid amounted to a roughly 25 percent premium to Time Warner's stock price, these people said. Fox indicated it would pay 60 percent of the price in stock and 40 percent in cash. The media giant said that it would raise $24 billion to help pay for the deal and stressed that its bid was not dependent on financing. At $85 a share, Fox would be paying about 12.6 times the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization last year. Fox estimated that a combination would create $1 billion in cost savings and possibly more, primarily by cutting sales staff and back-office functions, these people said. Fox insisted in its letter that it planned to keep Time Warner's most successful managers and creative executives as well as its various channels and studios.