NEW YORK — News Corp. formally split in two after the market closed on Friday, with existing shareholders getting one share in the new publishing entity for every four shares they hold in the media company.

Since Wednesday last week, preliminary shares of both sides of the company have been trading as if the split already occurred. Any buyers of preliminary shares will receive them next Friday.

Preliminary publishing shares closed Friday at $15.25.

The recent trading valued the publishing division, to be named News Corp., at around $8.8 billion. That’s about 12 percent of the entire company’s value. It had a market capitalization of about $75.5 billion before the split.

— From wire reports