The Battle of real “succession” of Rupert Murdoch has just ended with an agreement of several billion dollars which maintains Fox News, Wall Street Journal Conservative

The agreement of several billion dollars puts an end to legal conflicts that have drawn world attention and cement a clear future for companies in the center of American and international news.

The Restructure Rules The Murdoch Family Trust, a so-called irrevocable confidence in the center of the dispute between Rupert and Lachlan on one side and other children of Rupert, prudence Macleod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch, on the other. The legal dispute occurred when Rupert went to court to try to modify the trust, going from a structure of equal voting actions held by the four brothers and sisters in one with the control held by Lachlan.

Under the regulations, the control of the vote for the challenges of the trust will rest with Lachlan, who will remain president and chief executive officer of Fox Corporation and will assume the role of director general of a newly created entity. Rupert, now 94 years old, will continue in a capacity of figurehead as a emeritus president of companies, maintaining ceremonial leadership but without direct voting control.

According to a press release from News Corp., MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch will leave the beneficiaries of any trust holding actions in the main public companies. Each will receive a substantial consideration in species funded in part by the product of the public sale of approximately 16.9 million class B shares of Fox Corporation and 14.2 million class B CLASS B CLIPs which were previously held by the MFT.

At current market values ​​of $ 56.81 for Fox and $ 29.94 for News Corp, the product would be around $ 1.4 billion each. But The New York TimesFirst to report on the resolution of the dispute, quoted a person familiar with the question which declared that the entire agreement amounts to $ 3.3 billion, each of the three brothers and sisters obtaining $ 1.1 billion.

The remaining fundamental value of the old trust will be allocated to new trusts benefiting Lachlan Murdoch and the youngest girls of Rupert Murdoch, Grace and Chloé (children with ex-wife Wendi Deng), creating control through their vehicle, LGC Holdco, LLC.

LGC Holdco will hold around 36.2% of class B shares of Fox Corporation and around 33.1% of class B shares of News Corp.

“Succession” regulations

The battle that took place behind closed doors to Reno probate short in Nevada, the most indulgent place for such questions in the United States, looked like a scenario of the Hit Hbo Show SuccessionRumors largely based on the Murdoch family. Actually, The New York Times reported in December 2024 that Murdoch’s brothers and sisters were watching the program themselves and shaped their public relations strategy in response, because it reminded them of their father. In the end, the court rejected what he called a “carefully designed charade”.

The Board of Directors of News Corp explicitly welcomed the clarity provided by the new structure, noting that “leadership, vision and management … of Lachlan will continue to be important to guide the strategy and success of the company”.

Industry analysts claim that the regulation guarantees that Fox News will retain its conservative editorial management under the management of Lachlan, which has maintained the right status of Fox intact, because it assumed a leadership position on the network in 2016. The Wall Street JournalWith other News Corp assets, will also remain under the same strategic vision, without any indication of major change in governance or content orientation.

In addition to the strategic clarity for the Murdoch media Empire, this agreement resolved a potentially chaotic civil war which could have followed if the brothers and sisters had fought for control between them. James Murdoch, who had emerged with his sisters as a more liberal figure than his father and his brother, would have been favorable to Reining in the more conservative programming of Fox News, if he had reassured a leadership position.

For this story, Fortune Used a generative AI to help an initial project. An editor checked the accuracy of the information before the publication.

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