Rupert Murdoch has resigned from his position as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corporation, concluding a career spanning more than seven decades during which he built a media empire that stretched from Australia to the United States.
The firms said on Thursday that Lachlan Murdoch, his son, will continue to serve as chairman and CEO of Fox while serving as the sole chairman of News Corp. Lachlan’s position as the head of the media company is cemented by the change, putting the Murdoch family’s succession issues to rest. Murdoch stated, “Our companies are in robust condition, as am I,” in a note to staff on Thursday. The change in leadership will occur in mid-November, just before the annual shareholder meeting of Fox and News Corp.
It also happens to be only a few months after Murdoch, 92, abandoned a plan to combine Fox and News Corp to unify his media empire. Several prominent shareholders had opposed the plan because it wouldn’t maximize the company’s potential value. Murdoch, who holds close to controlling holdings in both businesses, will be named chairman emeritus of both. Lachlan takes over the Murdoch company as the media sector is pummelling by problems like the loss in traditional television viewing and news organizations suing digital companies over purported copyright theft in the age of artificial intelligence. Fox News remains the dominant cable news network in the United States, exerting considerable influence on the nation’s political landscape.
Fox recently settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, thus preventing a trial that would have required testimonies from Rupert Murdoch, his son Lachlan, as well as various Fox executives and hosts earlier in the year. Due to its amplification of false allegations of vote manipulation in the 2020 US presidential election, Fox would have come under scrutiny throughout the trial. According to legal experts, the payment constituted the largest amount ever attained by an American media corporation. In addition to shareholder lawsuits alleging Fox Corp officers and directors of breaking their obligations by allowing the business to become bogged down in defamation claims, Fox still faces a lawsuit from voting technology company Smartmatic, which sued Fox in 2021 for $2.7 billion over identical claims.
Murdoch, who is the parent of six children, has harbored a longstanding desire for his family to assume control of the business empire. Before the company decided to sell its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co. for $71.3 billion, a deal that concluded in 2019, his son James served as CEO of Twenty-First Century Fox. James subsequently invested the money from the transaction in Lupa Systems, a private investment company. The new Fox Corporation named Lachlan as its CEO. Murdoch’s other children might contest Lachlan’s authority after his passing. Through a family trust situated in Reno, Nevada, which owns around 40% of the voting shares of each business, Murdoch influences News Corp. and Fox Corp. He also owns a limited number of shares in businesses that are not part of the trust.
