News Corp In 1952, Rupert Murdoch inherited
The News, a tabloid newspaper based in
Adelaide,
South Australia, after the death of his father
Keith. In the years following, he acquired several newspapers in the United Kingdom and the United States, including
News of the World,
The Sun, the
New York Post, and founded
Sky News and
Fox News.
News Corporation, Murdoch's company, later acquired
HarperCollins and
Dow Jones & Company, the publisher of
The Wall Street Journal. In 2013, amid
several scandals—including the
News International phone hacking scandal, News Corporation divested its entertainment assets into
21st Century Fox and its publishing assets into
News Corp.
The Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox in March 2019. Murdoch's eldest son
Lachlan was appointed the chief executive of
Fox Corporation following the acquisition and appointed the chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp in September 2023. Murdoch's assets are primarily derived from Fox Corporation, which retained nearly thirty affiliate television stations after Disney's acquisition and operates several Fox News affiliates.
Murdoch family Rupert Murdoch has six children, including one with Patricia Booker and three with
Anna Maria Torv (now Anna dePeyster).
Prudence, who is the only child from Murdoch's first marriage, was described by
Michael Wolff in
Vanity Fair as uninterested in Murdoch's business operations, though she was employed as a journalist at
News of the World.
Elisabeth, Murdoch's eldest child with Torv, was the chairwoman of television production firm
Shine Group until it was acquired by
21st Century Fox in 2015.
Lachlan, Murdoch's elder son, is the chairman of
Fox Corporation and
News Corp and the chief executive of Fox Corporation. According to
The Wall Street Journal, Murdoch postulated that James could sell
Fox News, and former host
Tucker Carlson expressed concerns. In October 2022, Murdoch proposed combining News Corp and Fox Corporation, a merger that would have solidified Lachlan's position. Murdoch's efforts were privately criticized by Elisabeth and Prudence; at a dinner for Elisabeth's husband
Keith Tyson,
Robert De Niro encouraged her to go against her father, though she later appeared with Rupert at
Super Bowl LVII. The Murdoch Family Trust (MFT), written after Murdoch's divorce from Torv in 1999, defers management of News Corp to Murdoch's children upon his death and is largely irrevocable, but contains a provision that allows
good faith and beneficial changes. The trust gives Chloe and Grace, Murdoch's two youngest children with
Wendi Deng Murdoch, equal share of the equity without voting rights. The MFT owns only 14 per cent of News Corp in economic terms, but the family is able to have control over it because it owns 41 per cent of the voting shares. This is because News Corp shares have two tiers:
voting shares and
non-voting shares. In mid-2023, Lachlan Murdoch initiated a plan to change the trust, which he named "Project Family Harmony", labelling his brother James as the "troublesome beneficiary." Nevada has strict confidentiality protections, and few income and inheritance taxes, so it is a popular state for the management of family trusts. According to the
Wall Street Journal in September 2024, James had made a prior attempt at settlement, in a proposal that included the possible sale of his and his sisters' interests in the trust. However, this would lead to a loosening of Rupert and Lachlan's hold on the companies, as they would be under financial strain. Paddy Manning, who published an unauthorised biography of Lachlan Murdoch in 2022, claims that Lachlan had the option to buy out his family members a few years ago, but, after papers had been drawn up, he decided that the price was too high, and none of the siblings appeared to pose a threat to his control of the business. To buy out his three siblings now would cost at least $US3 billion (A$4.4 billion), and as his wealth was estimated at $US2.4 billion (A$3.5 billion) in early 2024, it is unclear whether he could fund the purchase. An annual meeting of News Corp shareholders was held by webcast on 20 November, to determine whether the "dual-class" share structure (voting and non-voting) should be abolished, after
Starboard Value, which has bought up a large share of News Corp over the previous year, proposed a one-share-one-vote system. News Corp stated that if the proposal is accepted, the new system of shares could only be introduced if agreement between voting and non-voting shareholders is reached.
Murdoch's health According to
Vanity Fair in April 2023, Murdoch had previously suffered several medical emergencies that were largely unreported, including "a broken back,
seizures, two bouts of
pneumonia,
atrial fibrillation, and a torn
Achilles tendon." In July 2022, Murdoch collapsed in
Oxfordshire from
COVID-19-related complications. He was treated at
Cromwell Hospital over the course of a week, and required the assistance of Lachlan to move.
Nevada trust law It is not stated where the family trust was set up, but a key reason for challenging the terms in
Nevada is that it allows changing the terms of a trust, using a method known as "decanting". This allows assets of one trust to be moved (or "poured") into a new trust with altered provisions. Nevada does not tax trusts at a state level nor mandate the reporting of trusts. ==Legal proceedings==