Succession wars
After decades of drawn-out battles, the 94-year-old Rupert Murdoch, who controls News Corp.—the global media empire that includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post, among others.—finally emerged victorious. His eldest son Lachlan, who shares his conservative political views, is legally deemed his successor, ensuring that their media holdings will continue in a similar fashion after the elder’s demise.
In a deal that was made public last Monday, Lachlan is set to control a new trust, while the siblings he is feuding with —the politically moderate Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch, and James Murdoch (who successfully sued their father in Nevada court over alleged machinations over the trust, in an operation the patriarch codenamed Project Family Harmony).—will no longer be beneficiaries in the existing family trust, done long ago upon the instance of Rupert’s second wife Anna, the mother of Lachlan, Elisabeth, and James.
In return, the three siblings will receive $1.1 billion each for their shares, ending any influence in the business.
Rupert’s children with third wife Wendi Deng—Grace and Chloe—are also included in the new family trust with Lachlan. Last year, Rupert divorced his fourth wife Jerry Hall, and married Elena Zukhova.
It has to be said that through the years, Rupert encouraged his children, primarily Lachlan and James, to work together, even formulating a family constitution in 2011, which included these clauses:
“We commit to undertake active dialog with each other at all times and to relentlessly communicate openly, with trust and humility. We agree not to delegate to anyone matters of family communication. We will be vigilant of and defend against divisiveness, either between us or that which could infiltrate from without.”
But goodwill cannot trump ideology. Soon Rupert and Lachlan were no longer speaking with James, who reportedly was horrified at what their news sites are doing: climate change denial, extremist rightwing policies, conspiracy theories.
“There’s this tabloid culture that’s contrarian for the sake of it, and delights in poking people in the eye,” James told The Atlantic this April. “At its worst, it metastasizes into something nasty and scary and manipulative.”
“The Murdoch empire has transformed tabloid newspapers, cable TV and satellite broadcasting over the last few decades while facing accusations of stoking populism across the English-speaking world,” says the website Money Control. “Brexit in Britain and the rise of Donald Trump in the United States are credited at least partly to Murdoch and his outlets.”
In contrast, when James was placed in charge of satellite company Star TV in Hong Kong in the 1990s, he turned it around in two years. Moreover, James instigated a set of more respectable ethics policies, including best practices in the workplace. His star was on the rise, but years after, the phone-hacking scandal in a company tabloid in London tainted the family, and James took a lot of the blame.
By this time it was open warfare within the family. Because they could no longer resolve differences amicably, share amendments were challenged in court by one party or the other. Now the conservatives have won.
The Murdoch family feud is the inspiration behind the hit TV series “Succession,” which details the ups and (mostly) downs of a media conglomerate. Ironically, Rupert has often insisted that his empire is a family business, which he intends to pass on to his children.
“I don’t know of any son of any prominent media family who hasn’t wanted to follow in the footsteps of his forebears,” he told the press early on. “It’s just too great a life.”
However, communication professor Matthew Ricketson of Melbourne’s Deakin University told the BBC Today recently, “He seems to have torn apart his family in the process.”
“[Succession] is now resolved, but you can’t see them all being very happy about it.”
Queena N. Lee-Chua is on the Board of Directors of Ateneo’s Family Business Center. Get her print book “All in the Family Business” at Lazada or Shopee, or e-book at Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks. Contact the author at blessbook.chua@gmail.com.
