Paddy Manning: author and journalist on the Murdoch family resolving media succession battle

Rupert Murdoch’s children have reached a settlement in the legal dispute over control of the right-wing media mogul’s companies, with son Lachlan set to take over.

The new deal establishes a trust to replace the Murdoch Family Trust that had included all the siblings and half-siblings.

Under the agreement, Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch will receive cash based on equity sales and cease to have holdings in any of the media companies. 

Author and journalist Paddy Manning says a lot of these shares will be sold to the public instead.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, after years of a legal battle, the Murdoch family
has settled the succession question. Lachlan Murdoch is the winner.
He will control his father's media group. The family have
struck an agreement. Lachland controls a new trust. His siblings Preu, Elizabeth,
and James will cease being beneficiaries of any trust with
shares in Foxhall News Call, which means the conservative slant
of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and The New
York Post are guaranteed. Patty Manning has authored books and

(00:22):
hosted a podcast on the Murdoch dynasty. Hi, Patty, Hi, Heather, Right,
what do we know about the deal?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's an extraordinary deal. In fact, three point three billion
dollars us. The three disaffected siblings, James, Elizabeth, and Prue
will walk away from the Murdoch media empire altogether and
agree under a stand still commitment that they will not

(00:53):
have any further involvement in either Fox or News corporation.
And now I think that that is a that is
definitely a final outcome to the succession question that swelled
around the Murdoch family for almost three three decades. It's
the witch of Rupert Murdock's children. Would get final, unassailable

(01:16):
control of the business. Lachlan is the successor. But it's
an interesting question how the deal is structured, and we're waiting.
We haven't got full financial disclosure on this, but it
seems that there is. Lochlan Murdock has decided to take
a little bit of a risk that the combined Murdoch

(01:37):
family holding. A lot of these shares are being sold
to the public. So it's not the case that Lachlan
is buying out his siblings. He's engineered to buy out,
but it's not with his own money. Some of it
is his money, but a good chunk of it is
coming from the public buying this shareholding.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
It's interesting now this has been dragging on for such
a long time. So what do you think it was
in the end that managed to get them to to
let go of the company? Was it just the scale
of the payout?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I think that the price was part of the sticking
you know, part of the sticking point in the negotiations
was the price. And what what that means is that
there had been previous offers by There had been previous
offers by Lachlan that to buy out his siblings, in

(02:30):
particular James, the most vocal critic of the box and
news businesses, to buy out his you know, buy him
out at fifty percent of the market value of the holding,
for example, or and then it was increased of sixty percent. Now,
what we've seen with this deal is that James, Liz
and Prue have got eighty percent of the market value
of their shareholding held in the Murdock Family trust with

(02:53):
this three point three billion dollar deal. And and Lachlan,
you know, I think will feel that that is, you know,
that's a good outcome.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Now, Patty obviously difficult to be running a media company
in the twenty first century, right, things have changed quite
a lot recently. Do you think Lachlan has got Is
he going to change things up significantly?

Speaker 2 (03:16):
I don't think so. I think it's a status quo
outcome for now. I think there are steps that he
has previously signaled he would like to take, like putting
Fox and News back together. They were split in the
wake of the phone acting scandal. But I think he
will want to He will want to recombine them, and
he signaled that in the past, and it was Scotch.

(03:37):
It's the kind of deal he wanted to do, but
it was Scotch by opposition, partly from James as a
beneficiary of the Murdoch Family Trust. And that's the kind
of deal that he will be able to do now
without any challenge.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Patty, thank you for talking us through at Patty Manning,
author of minibooks and podcasts, also host of a podcast
on the Murdoch Dynasty.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
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