Murdochs Mull New Combination of Fox, News Corp.

Brian Steinberg
·3 min read
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Rupert Murdoch is considering getting the whole gang together again — a new combination of the two big media companies his family controls.

Murdoch has proposed an exploration of the potential for a merger of Fox Corp. and News Corp., two entities his family split apart in the summer of 2013. according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed by the latter and a statement by Fox Corp. The Wall Street Journal previously reported the decision, which would be considered by special committees of each company’s board of directors.

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News Corp. said that it “formed a Special Committee composed of independent and disinterested members of the Board to begin exploring a potential combination with Fox Corporation” after it received “letters from K. Rupert Murdoch and the Murdoch Family Trust.” There is no guarantee a merger will result from the discussions, the company said. Fox offered a similar assessment.

A re-combination of the assets would once again pair the Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel and Fox Sports with the Harper Collins publishing company, the Dow Jones & Co. financial-publishing business and various newspaper holdings around the world. Even so, the entities are smaller than they once were. Fox sold off its cable and studio assets to Walt Disney Co. in 2017 and News Corp. no longer includes such operations as News America Marketing, which it sold to a private-equity firm in 2020.

“As a company, we are always exploring opportunities to strengthen and grow our business, particularly at a time of such dynamic change in the media industry” Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s son and a senior executive at both News Corp. and Fox Corp., told employees in a memo. “However, I want to emphasize that the special committee has not made any determination at this time, and there can be no certainty that any transaction will result from its evaluation.”

The possibility of a new merger of the two entities comes as traditional media companies are under pressure to gain new scale and heft as they face competition from tech giants like Amazon, Apple and Netflix that can distribute content digitally and across the globe without the distribution restrictions that shackle linear cable and broadcast outlets. Others have felt a similar push. Shari Redstone decided in 2019 to recombine the former CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc., two media companies her father, Sumner Redstone, pulled apart in 2006.

Spokespersons for News Corp. and Fox Corp. did not respond immediately to queries seeking comment.

Rupert Murdoch is executive chairman of News Corp and chairman of Fox Corp. His son Lachlan Murdoch is co-chairman of News Corp and executive chairman and chief executive of Fox. The famiy’s trust controls approximately 39% of the voting shares of News Corp. and about 42% of the voting shares in Fox Corp.

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