The battle between Rupert Murdoch and his children over the future of his media empire begins this week as observers attempt to force the court to make the secretive dispute public.
Murdoch wants to change the structure of his family trust to give all voting power to his oldest son, Lachlan. If successful, Murdoch’s other adult children, Prudence, James and Elisabeth, will lose their voting power.
Of the children, Lachlan is the most politically aligned with his father while his younger siblings have expressed reservations about the direction of the companies, particularly during Donald Trump’s presidency.
Both sides have hired high-profile lawyers to oversee the case. Murdoch is working with the former US attorney general William Barr, who is helping him rewrite the trust, and Adam Streisand, a trial lawyer who has worked on the estate cases of Michael Jackson and Britney Spears.
Though the trial will have enormous consequences for Murdoch’s holdings, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, Murdoch is fighting to ensure it will largely take place away from the public eye.
The only information available to the public are the key dates of the trial, which is being held in Reno, Nevada, listed on the court’s website. The trial is slated to have a status conference on 9 September followed by a series of evidentiary hearings starting 16 September.
A coalition of six national news outlets – the Associated Press, CNN, NPR, the New York, Reuters and the Washington Post – have filed requests to access proceedings and unseal court records.
“The fate of the Murdoch Family’s enormous fortune and vast media empire is a matter of immense public interest, and the public also has an interest in ensuring that the public courts administer justice in a proper, impartial manner,” the requests said, according to NBC News.
On its website, the court said that while it “has received numerous media inquiries” related to the trial, “the court file on this matter is confidential and sealed as to all matters”.
“In addition, all court hearings on this matter are closed to the public,” the website said. “No other public information related to this matter is available through the court.”
As the trial is set to start, a prominent News Corp investor, the hedge fund Starboard Value, is trying to send a message to Murdoch that his family has too much power over the company. News Corp is the parent company of dozens of media companies including the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London and the book publisher HarperCollins.
Jeffrey Smith, an activist shareholder and founder of Starboard Value, is spearheading efforts to decrease Murdoch’s voting power over the company. Murdoch currently has a 14% stake in News Corp but has 41% of votes over the company through dual-class shares.
A shareholder proposal from Starboard Value argues that Murdoch should get rid of his dual-class shares, which would eventually be passed down to his children, as the political disagreement in the family “could be paralyzing to the strategic direction” of New Corp.
“We are not sure why their perspectives should carry greater weight than the views of other shareholders,” Smith wrote in the proposal, according to the New York Times.
Even if approved, the company’s board can decide not to agree to the proposal. But Smith said that it would “send a clear and direct message” to the board over concerns of the Murdoch family’s power over the company.
