The succession battle at Rupert Murdoch\u2019s media empire has ended.<\/p>\n
The family announced on Monday that Lachlan Murdoch, Murdoch\u2019s eldest son, will secure control of the Murdochs\u2019 sprawling media empire that includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal<\/a> and The Times in the UK, with his three oldest siblings receiving an estimated $1.1bn each for their shares in the business.<\/p>\n The deal ends a sometimes bitter legal battle<\/a> between Murdoch\u2019s oldest children for control of their 94-year-old father\u2019s business that has been reminiscent of the HBO show Succession<\/a>, which was purportedly inspired by the Murdoch family. It also conserves the media company\u2019s conservative bent; Lachlan Murdoch is regarded as the most conservative of Murdoch\u2019s oldest children.<\/p>\n Lachlan is the current chair of News Corp, the parent company of over two dozen publications including the Journal, The Times<\/a> and the New York Post, after he succeeded his father in 2023.<\/p>\n Rupert Murdoch\u2019s children with his third wife Wendy Deng, Chloe and Grace, will join Lachlan in a new family trust that will hold controlling stakes in Fox Corporation and News Corp, the Murdochs\u2019 media groups. Under the agreement, Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch will be the beneficiaries of a trust that will house the proceeds of the sale.<\/p>\n The three children took their father to court in Reno, Nevada, after he tried to wrest away their voting power and leave Lachlan with sole control of the companies in a project Murdoch reportedly named \u201cProject Family Harmony\u201d.<\/p>\n According to court records<\/a>, Murdoch told others in private that while he wanted harmony in the family, he believed Lachlan was the best to lead his media empire into the future.<\/p>\n \u201cWould love nothing more than peace all around,\u201d he wrote to his ex-wife Anna, the mother of Elisabeth, Lachlan and James. \u201cBut the fact remains Lachlan is the best to run the business \u2014 greatly respected inside and outside!\u201d<\/p>\n Family and political differences appear to have driven a wedge between Lachlan and his siblings. In a rare interview earlier published this year, James Murdoch told the Atlantic<\/a> magazine that he regarded his father as a \u201cmisogynist\u201d and described Fox News as a \u201cmenace\u201d to US democracy.<\/p>\n The family finally agreed on a buyout after the case, which happened out of public eye<\/a> for months, went into appeals, according to the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n