MELBOURNE - A years-long succession battle within Rupert Murdoch's conservative media empire has drawn to a close, with his son Lachlan set to control the news group.
The deal, which the family announced last Monday, will ensure the ongoing conservative leaning of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post after 94-year-old Rupert's death. Under the agreement Lachlan will control a new trust while siblings Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch will cease being beneficiaries of any trust with shares in Fox or News Corp.
It follows years of tension between the media mogul and three of his children over the future of the family-owned newspapers and television networks. The Murdoch family's internal turmoil served as inspiration for the hit television drama Succession. The deal announced last Monday - the finale of the real-life saga - ends all litigation over the family's trust. Lachlan's more politically moderate oldest siblings are poised to sell their holdings in Fox and News Corp in the coming months.
They will also be named as beneficiaries of a new trust, which will receive cash from the sale of about 14.2 million shares of News Corp and 16.9 million shares of Fox Corp. According to reports, Prudence, Elisabeth and James will receive around $1.1bn (£810m) each. The sale of their shares will add to the three siblings' existing inheritance, but prevent them from having any influence over the political bent of the family's media conglomerate.
Andrew Neil, the former editor of the Sunday Times and the founding chair of Sky TV, said the outcome was a success for Rupert Murdoch, though "an expensive success". Describing Lachlan as a "chip off the old block", Neil said Rupert's fear was that "when he went to the great newsroom in the sky Lachlan would be outvoted" by his three oldest siblings "who are of a small 'l' liberal bent". "That won't happen now because they've been bought out… Lachlan Murdoch is now king of the hill in a new trust that will have control of the organisation and he runs that without fear of interference from his siblings," he told the BBC. (BBC/ Reuters / Bloomberg / Getty Images)