(Reuters) – Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as chairman of Fox Corp and News Corp, capping a more than 70-year career in which he built a media empire stretching from Australia to the United States -United.
His son, Lachlan Murdoch, will become News Corp’s sole chairman and remain chairman and CEO of Fox, the two companies announced Thursday.
The advent of the eldest Murdoch son suggests a settlement of the succession disputes which have long agitated the family.
It comes a few months after Rupert Murdoch, 92, abandoned a proposed merger between Fox and News Corp, failing to obtain the approval of significant shareholders.
The end of Rupert Murdoch’s reign was also marked by defamation suits against the company Dominion Voting Systems, while the Fox News channel – often criticized for its very conservative positioning – relayed accusations of electoral fraud. launched in 2020 by former US President Donald Trump.
The lawsuits concluded last April with a costly $787.5 million settlement from Fox that allowed Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan to avoid a trial in which they would have been forced to testify.
“IN GOOD HEALTH”
Rupert Murdoch, who owns almost majority stakes in Fox and News Corp, will be named honorary chairman of both companies.
In a memo addressed to his staff on Thursday, Rupert Murdoch assured that “our businesses are in good health, just like me”.
On the New York Stock Exchange, Fox shares rose 2.8%, News Corp shares rose 0.9%.
Rupert Murdoch, born in Australia, had six children who he long hoped would take the reins of the company. His son James was named CEO of Twenty-First Century Fox before the film and television business was sold to Disney in 2019 for $71.3 billion.
James Murdoch subsequently took the reins of the investment fund Lupa Systems, with Lachlan being named CEO of the new Fox.
FAMILY TRUST
Despite Lachlan Murdoch’s weight within the family media empire, a war of succession cannot be ruled out following the death of Rupert Murdoch.
The media mogul controls News Corp and Fox through a family trust based in Reno, in the US state of Nevada, which owns about 40% of the voting shares in each company.
Each of Rupert Murdoch’s four adult children owns a stake in the trust.
The youngest of his daughters, Chloe and Grace, from his third marriage to Wendi Deng, do not, however, have voting rights in the trust.
The transfer of voting shares in News Corp and Fox from Rupert Murdoch to his four adult children could create a scenario in which three of the children could outvote a fourth, potentially leading to a battle over the future of the two companies.
(Reporting Aditya Soni and Helen Coster, French version Corentin Chappron and Blandine Hénault, edited by Nicolas Delame)
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