In 1996, Murdoch joined News Corporation and was appointed chairman of
Festival Records. He took charge of News Corporation's internet operations, where he invested in a series of ventures, including financial website
TheStreet and the short-lived online music site Whammo, with mixed results. It was at first thought that News Corporation might use FMR as the foundation of a new international entertainment company, but FMR struggled while Murdoch was in charge and after his departure its fortunes declined rapidly. FMR was closed in late 2005 and its remaining assets were sold: the recording catalogue was sold to the Australian division of
Warner Music for A$10 million in October 2005, and the publishing division was sold to
Michael Gudinski a month later, for an undisclosed sum. In May 2000, Murdoch was appointed chairman and chief executive of News Corporation's ailing Asian satellite service
Star Television, which at the time was losing £100 million a year, and he moved to Hong Kong. He was an executive vice-president of News Corporation (the controlling shareholder of BSkyB) and served on the board of directors of
News Datacom and of News Corporation. Following the surprise resignation of his brother
Lachlan Murdoch from his executive positions at News Corporation in July 2005, James was viewed as his father's heir-apparent. In December 2007, Murdoch stepped down as CEO from
BSkyB and was appointed non-executive chairman of the company (a position formerly held by his father, Rupert). In a related announcement, Murdoch also took "direct responsibility for the strategic and operational development of
News Corporation's television, newspaper, and related digital assets in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East." This included holdings such as
News International,
Sky Italia,
STAR Group ltd and possibly other News Corporation related
assets. He was based at
News International's headquarters in
Wapping,
East London. In February 2009, Murdoch was appointed a non-executive director with the British pharmaceutical company
GlaxoSmithKline. In August 2009, Murdoch delivered the
James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the
Edinburgh International Television Festival, in which he attacked the
BBC and UK media regulator
Ofcom calling the BBC's expansion "chilling" and also said: "In this all-media marketplace, the expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision, which are so important for our democracy." The BBC chairman,
Sir Michael Lyons officially responded, "We have to be careful not to reduce the whole of broadcasting to some simple economic transactions. The
BBC's public purposes stress the importance of the well-tested principles of educating and informing, and an impartial contribution to debate in the UK." In April 2010, Murdoch and his associate
Rebekah Brooks entered the offices of
The Independent to complain about an advertisement campaign by the newspaper. Until April 2012, he was the chairman and CEO of
Sky plc, Europe and Asia, where he oversaw assets such as
News International (publisher of
The News of the World newspaper),
Sky Italia,
Sky Deutschland, and
STAR TV. He was executive chairman of News International from 2007 until February 2012. He previously held a non-executive chair at
British Sky Broadcasting, in which News Corporation had a controlling minority stake. In April 2012, he was forced to resign as chairman of BSkyB in the wake of the ongoing
phone hacking scandal, in which he was implicated. In April 2014, it was announced that Murdoch would join the board of advertising start-up True[X] Media. In June 2015, his father, Rupert, announced that he would be leaving his position as CEO of
21st Century Fox and James would take over the position. In January 2016, Murdoch became the chairman of Sky, Britain's subscription broadcaster. In July 2017, Murdoch became an independent director on the board of
Tesla. In October 2018, Murdoch left Sky after
Comcast took the majority control of the company. In March 2019, 21st Century Fox was sold to
The Walt Disney Company, ending Murdoch's tenure as CEO. Murdoch was a director of News Corp in August 2019. In July 2020, he resigned from the board. His resignation letter stated that his resignation was "due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions". He criticised the "ongoing denial of the role of
climate change" seen in the Australian outlets, following the particularly devastating
2019–20 Australian bushfire season. In 2021, Murdoch set up the Indian arm of his family office, Lupa Systems India, as a joint venture with businessman
Uday Shankar. The aim of the joint venture was to focus on media, education, and the healthcare sectors in Asia, particularly India. In May 2022, Lupa India (renamed to Bodhi Tree Systems) announced a $600 million investment in the test-prep company Allen Career Institute Private Limited for a 36% stake, and completed the deal in July. In April 2023, Bodhi Tree acquired a 13% stake in the
Reliance-owned media and entertainment company,
Viacom18, and subsequently increased it to 16% by August 2023. In February 2024, Viacom18 and
Disney-Star India entered into a joint venture to form an $8.5 billion entity. ==2011 phone hacking scandal and aftermath ==