When it comes to corporate governance, you can always rely on Rupert Murdoch to take the low road. And so it goes with his so-called “retirement” and handover to his eldest son, Lachlan.
This should have been announced by the independent directors of News Corp and Fox Corp, who represent the 80%+ of the companies owned by non-Murdoch shareholders. But no, the only company heads given a platform to discuss this were Rupert and Lachlan themselves, the joint leaders of two major publicly listed media empires.
As Crikey reported in August, in their 2022-23 profit results, both News Corp and Fox Corp withheld disclosing the pay packets for Lachlan and Rupert, so we didn’t know just how much more they’d been paid last year on top of the $1.74 billion given to Murdoch men by public companies over the past 24 years.
However, when you’re paid vast sums to hold media power through public companies, sometimes you actually have to turn up — and for 92-year-old Rupert Murdoch, in recent years this has been increasingly difficult.
After giving disastrous private evidence in the Dominion trial, the prospect of Rupert facing a public cross-examination in the opening days of the actual trial was reportedly the key problem to avoid: hence the humiliating US$787.5 million settlement.
With the shareholder writs subsequently flying, you can’t keep throwing company funds away just to prevent your leader from turning up to defend the empire’s various atrocities — in this case, Fox News lying about the so-called stolen election.
The same problem arises with the AGMs of Fox Corp and News Corp, which are coming up in November, although we still don’t have actual dates or the documentation setting out the agenda.
While Rupert has barely turned up to a quarterly earnings call with analysts in recent years, as co-executive chairman of both companies — who was paid almost $40 million to do both jobs last year — he can’t exactly keep skipping the AGMs into his 90s.
On first hearing the “chairman emeritus” move, I assumed this would involve Rupert staying on both boards but reducing his pay. There are many founders — think Frank Lowy at Westfield — who have done this. But no, this News Corp announcement to the SEC confirms that he will formally be off the board at the end of the upcoming AGM. Fox Corp hasn’t released a similar announcement to the SEC, but this press release confirmed that he would be exiting both boards at their AGMs.
One of the most enthusiastic advocates for Rupert actually leaving the two boards is probably Lachlan, who has never really had an opportunity to shine away from his famous father’s shadow. Indeed, the two public company boards that Lachlan did serve on away from his father — One.Tel and Ten Network Holdings — both turned into disastrous corporate collapses with total losses in each exceeding $1 billion.
It will ultimately be up to the boards of Fox and News Corp to select their next CEO and chair. This is partly why Rupert and Lachlan attempted to put the two companies back together last year, because one chess board would be easier to manage than two, particularly regarding succession. However, independent shareholders and Lachlan’s more progressive younger brother James reportedly had other ideas, hence the proposal being parked.
As for Rupert’s legacy, he really has led the world’s most powerful family for arguably 30 years. But has he used that power for good, while building a $30 billion fortune for his family?
Fighting action on climate change, backing Brexit, backing Trump, backing the disastrous second Iraq war and debauching journalism through dodgy practices such as phone hacking leave a pretty toxic legacy. Even something like a failed Voice referendum will get pinned on Rupert.
He could have deployed his media power with a simple directive such as “of course Indigenous peoples should be recognised in the constitution and what’s wrong with giving them an advisory committee”.
Alas, the nasty old man wasn’t even able to bring himself to that, hence division and enmity prevail yet again.
Thanks for nothing, Rupert.
