Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch have abandoned plans for a merger between News Corp and Fox. The statement from News Corp revealed that the Murdochs have decided that a merger between the two companies is not in the best interest of shareholders at this time.
The proposal faced significant opposition from major shareholders, including US investment giant T Rowe Price and Independent Franchise Partners, who publicly expressed reservations about the merger. The decision to cancel the merger leaves several questions unanswered about moves to give the younger Murdoch more power and responsibility within the media companies.
The Murdochs had claimed that re-combining News Corp and Fox would help the media companies bulk up to ward off competition from tech giants. However, analysts and investors were against the move, doubting that combining News Corp, which includes US, UK, and Australian newspaper mastheads, digital real estate assets and book publisher Harper Collins with Fox’s US-based Fox News and Fox Sports would help the companies in the long run.
Attribution:
This summary is based on a story published in the Australian Financial Review
https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/rupert-murdoch-yanks-plan-for-us28-billion-fox-news-mega-merger-20230125-p5cfa9
