After years of embittered squabbles over which of Rupert Murdoch‘s children will take over the publishing empire, a decision about his successor has been made. Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest of his four children, will take control of the organisation, with the rest of the brood receiving approximately $1.1 billion each for their shares in the business. If you’re thinking, “God, this sounds like Succession“, you’d be fkn right.
The news has been confirmed by News Corp in a statement released on Tuesday.
“News Corp’s board of directors welcomes these developments and believes that the leadership, vision and management by the Company’s Chair, Lachlan Murdoch, will continue to be important to guiding the Company’s strategy and success,” the statement read, following details on the settlement.
The move comes after Rupert’s bid in July last year to change the family’s irrevocable family trust to make sure that Lachlan, the most conservative of his children, would be his successor. The trust had previously entrusted the four children — Lachlan, James Murdoch, Elizabeth Murdoch and Prudence Macleod— with equal voting power in running the company’s sprawling estate of titles when he died. However, with his children’s progressive views, he was worried that Lachlan would be booted out.
Rupert claimed in a Nevada court that it would be more beneficial to the empire’s commercial value to appoint Lachlan as the heir and prevent the other, more liberal siblings from changing the company’s right-wing political leaning.
Following Rupert’s bid to remove the three siblings’ voting power within the company in a project he reportedly titled “Project Family Harmony”, the three siblings took him to court.
In December last year, a judge ruled against Rupert and Lachlan. However, it brought the family back together for negotiations.
Now, the family has struck a deal with Lachlan and his two youngest siblings, Grace and Chloe Murdoch, as members of one trust, while James, Elizabeth and Prudence will be part of another trust. According to the Financial Review, this trust will contain proceeds of roughly 14.2 million News Corp Class B shares and 16.9 million Fox Corporation Class B Shares.
A source with “insider knowledge” told The New York Times that the deal was valued at $3.3 billion USD (approximately $5 billion AUD), with Prudence, Elizabeth and James receiving $1.1 billion USD (approximately $1.69 billion AUD). The agreement also will see the siblings sell any News Corp or Fox Corporation shares they own in the next six months in order to maintain Lachlan’s control over the media empire.
As it stands, Lachlan is the executive chairman of Fox Corporation and the current chair of News Corp, the parent company which owns publications such as The Australian, The Times, The New York Post and News.com.au. He took on that position after his father retired in 2023.
The Murdoch family is believed to be the inspiration behind the show Succession, and after all of this, it’s really easy to see why.
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