Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp chief executive, yesterday disavowed any interest in making a bid for Yahoo, depriving the internet company of a possible white knight as it tries to fend of a $43.1bn offer from Microsoft.

"We are definitely not going to make a bid for Yahoo," Mr Murdoch said, as the company announced that its fiscal second quarter profits edged up 1.2 per cent to $832m.