This article is an instalment in a series, Project Harmony, on Rupert Murdoch’s secret plan threatening to blow up his family.
Rupert Murdoch has blown apart his family as he attempts to entrench son Lachlan as his inheritor and deny his other children a role in the future affairs of the empire. So let’s review some of the assets up for grabs at the centre of “Project Harmony”.
According to The New York Times, Rupert Murdoch is attempting to give his eldest son Lachlan “permanent, exclusive control” over the family business, including Fox News, which is part of one of the two family companies, Fox Corp. The other is News Corp, also US based.
The Times report says Rupert is attempting to make changes to the family trust in a probate court in Reno, Nevada.
Rupert and Lachlan have not made any filing or statement on the case, even though the outcome will affect both Fox Corp and News Corp, the two companies the trust controls with around 40% of the voting shares.
Fox Corp is the key asset because of Fox News and its strong position as the right-wing publicity machine for the likes of Donald Trump.
In 2023, Rupert and Lachlan presided over one of the biggest defamation payouts in history — a US$787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over lies Fox News put to air concerning the voting systems company’s electronic machines and their role in the 2020 presidential election.
Another voting machines company, Smartmatic, has a larger case against Fox that is due to go to trial soon in New York. Rupert and Lachlan have central roles in that case as well.
News Corp houses operations in the US (the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal and information businesses), the UK (The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times, and poorly run TV and radio companies) and Australia (The Australian, Sky News (about to change its name), and tabloids in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart, as well as Harper Collins, 61% of REA Group, and 65% of Foxtel).
The trust also controls around 4% of Disney, making it the second biggest shareholder.
While he is alive, Rupert has four votes in the trust while his four oldest children — Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James — have one each.
Reuters reported last year that upon Rupert’s death, News Corp and Fox Corp voting shares will be transferred to his four oldest children, “creating a scenario in which three of the children could out-vote a fourth, potentially setting up a battle over the future of the companies, even as Lachlan Murdoch runs Fox Corp and is the sole chair of News Corp”.
It is this provision that Rupert Murdoch is trying to undo, according to The New York Times.
Rupert knows that James, Prudence and Elisabeth do not especially like Fox News (or their brother Lachlan for that matter).
According to the Financial Times, the trust also includes the Cruden family farm near Melbourne, and Rupert’s art collection.
