Perhaps the resignation of his own son was too much for him or he has spent too much time in the sun? Whatever the case, Rupert Murdoch has announced that he is willing to spend a warchest of $2 Billion in Internet acquisitions. He has already bought MySpace.com and today announced he is in negotiations to buy Blinkx:

News Corp. is in negotiations to buy Blinkx, a privately held Internet search company based in San Francisco, according to people close to the world’s fourth-largest media giant.

The prospective acquisition of Blinkx is part of an aggressive bid by News Corp. to take on such Internet powerhouses as Yahoo Inc. News Corp. is trying to build a rival portal by acquiring fast-growing Web businesses and by leveraging the sites of its in-house brands, including those of local Fox TV stations, the Fox TV network and cable channels such as Fox Sports and Fox News.

He may be stir crazy but he seems to be making very wise purchases: Blinkx is considered the de facto leader in video searches on the Internet and Myspace is the fifth most popular domain on the entire Internet. Dare we say it? Perhaps good ol’ Rupey has had a premonition of the death of telelvision? That might explain his sudden need to solidify his grasp on new distribution networks (especially now that he can’t leave it to future Murdoch children).

Read more on this topic from one of our favorite informers: Om.