The bruising succession struggle for Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has reached a conclusion, leaving its conservative slant intact but the family splintered.
A multibillion dollar deal will leave 94-year-old Rupert’s various TV networks and newspapers, including Fox News, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, under the leadership of his chosen heir, Lachlan, who is seen as the most conservative of his siblings.
The agreement marks a win for Rupert, who had moved in 2023 to amend the family’s irrevocable family trust to strip his children Elisabeth, 57, Prudence, 67, and James, 52, of their voting powers and give them to Lachlan, who turned 54 on Monday.
While the effort failed in court last December, the two sides eventually agreed to hold new talks over a buyout.
The family feud, which inspired HBO’s hit drama Succession, has captivated observers for years with its mix of high stakes corporate battles and bitter personal conflict.
As part of the deal, Lachlan’s three oldest siblings are set to receive $1.1 billion apiece for their stakes in the media empire, The New York Times reported, citing a source close to the negotiations. Their shares, held in the existing family trust, will be liquidated as the trust is dissolved.
The Murdoch family’s net worth is currently $24.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Lachlan, the current chair of News Corp, will be included in a new Murdoch family trust with his half-sisters, Grace and Chloe, who are around 24 and 22 years old, respectively. The trust will hold the controlling stake in the family’s two main media companies, Fox Corporation and News Corp.
The trust expires in 2050, allowing Lachlan to maintain control of the empire for decades.
The Daily Beast has reached out to News Corp for comment.
Rupert’s initial trust gave his four eldest children an equal share of control in the empire and was written to be inviolable until its expiration in 2030. If the media mogul died before then, Elisabeth, Prudence, and James could have formed a bloc to oust Lachlan from his role as the companies’ executive steward and eradicate their conservative values.
Rupert and Lachlan launched their bid to amend the trust with a plan they called “Project Family Harmony,” which the other siblings sued to block, culminating in a six-day trial in Reno, Nevada, last year.
The initial ruling favored the three siblings, with Washoe County Probate Commissioner Edmund Gorman blasting Rupert and Lachlan’s “carefully crafted charade” as an attempt to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles.”
But the legal battle continued as the pair appealed, and James handed them leverage in a profile published in The Atlantic in February, in which he revealed sensitive details from the case, called his father a misogynist, and said Fox was “lying” to its audience.
By mid-March, the family resumed their buyout negotiations, according to the Times.
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