,MNE3704 Assignment 2 (COMPLETE ANSWERS)
Semester 1 2025 - DUE 31 March 2025; 100% correct
solutions and explanations.
CASE STUDY: THE MURDOCH DYNASTY Rupert Murdoch
inherited a modest media business from his father, Keith, but the
impact of death duties and taxes left him nothing but a loss-
making newspaper in Adelaide, Australia. He has transformed
this into the world’s largest media empire. His primary interest,
New Corporation, has assets of $56 billion and sales $23 billion
in films, newspaper and publishing around the world. But
according to some reports, the problem of succession is
threatening to destabilize his business. Rupert's public favour of
his children over professional management has sent a clear
signal to ambitious employees and investors alike. This is a
family company, family gets priority, and everyone else's
interests will always be second. Rupert Murdoch has six
children from three marriages, including Elizabeth, Lachlan and
James from his marriage to Ann, which ended in divorce in
1999. Lachlan, who managed the New York Post and the Fox
television service, was initially the favourite to head the family
business. But in recent years, first Elizabeth and then James
have emerged as contenders for the succession. Lachlan, a
London-born American citizen was sent to Australia in 1994,
where he was chairman and chief executive of News Ltd, the
Australian arm of News Corp. He was deputy chief executive
officer on the main board of News Corporation, a role that
extended his reach well outside of Australia and into the
company’s worldwide interests, but he abruptly resigned this
, post in August 2005. The family denied that he quit because of a
rift with his father. Lachlan’s elder sister, Elizabeth, came into
reckoning when she was given a senior job at BskyB,
Murdoch’s UK satellite television company. This was a
controversial appointment as she had less than two years’
management experience and was described as a ‘trainee’ by the
chief executive (who left soon after making the comment).
Elizabeth now seems intent on making own way as she left Sky
to set her own film production business, Shine Entertainment.
James worked his way up through the company’s new media
and newspaper interests in New York, before moving to Hong
Kong to take charge of News Corporation’s ailing Asian satellite
service StarTV. Having turned this around, he was given the
executive’s role at BskyB in 2003. Promoted to take charge of
the NewsCorp business in Europe and Asia in 2007, he is now
the bookies’ favourite to take over when Rupert goes. But one
should not forget Murdoch’s elder daughter, Prudence
MacLeod, who does not have job in News Corp herself but she
has declared that her oldest son, teenager James MacLeod, is a
lot like his famous grandfather and may also want to take over
the world one day. Fortunately, News Corp is large enough to
give them all interesting employment should they need it. It had
been thought that James Murdoch, the third child born to
Rupert’s second wife, was most likely to inherit the empire. That
was before he became embroiled in the phone-hacking scandal
at the News of the World. In a concession to shareholders,
parliamentary inquisitors and anyone else troubled by the
behaviour of Murdoch’s British newspapers, it was revealed that
James has resigned from the boards of The Times of London
Semester 1 2025 - DUE 31 March 2025; 100% correct
solutions and explanations.
CASE STUDY: THE MURDOCH DYNASTY Rupert Murdoch
inherited a modest media business from his father, Keith, but the
impact of death duties and taxes left him nothing but a loss-
making newspaper in Adelaide, Australia. He has transformed
this into the world’s largest media empire. His primary interest,
New Corporation, has assets of $56 billion and sales $23 billion
in films, newspaper and publishing around the world. But
according to some reports, the problem of succession is
threatening to destabilize his business. Rupert's public favour of
his children over professional management has sent a clear
signal to ambitious employees and investors alike. This is a
family company, family gets priority, and everyone else's
interests will always be second. Rupert Murdoch has six
children from three marriages, including Elizabeth, Lachlan and
James from his marriage to Ann, which ended in divorce in
1999. Lachlan, who managed the New York Post and the Fox
television service, was initially the favourite to head the family
business. But in recent years, first Elizabeth and then James
have emerged as contenders for the succession. Lachlan, a
London-born American citizen was sent to Australia in 1994,
where he was chairman and chief executive of News Ltd, the
Australian arm of News Corp. He was deputy chief executive
officer on the main board of News Corporation, a role that
extended his reach well outside of Australia and into the
company’s worldwide interests, but he abruptly resigned this
, post in August 2005. The family denied that he quit because of a
rift with his father. Lachlan’s elder sister, Elizabeth, came into
reckoning when she was given a senior job at BskyB,
Murdoch’s UK satellite television company. This was a
controversial appointment as she had less than two years’
management experience and was described as a ‘trainee’ by the
chief executive (who left soon after making the comment).
Elizabeth now seems intent on making own way as she left Sky
to set her own film production business, Shine Entertainment.
James worked his way up through the company’s new media
and newspaper interests in New York, before moving to Hong
Kong to take charge of News Corporation’s ailing Asian satellite
service StarTV. Having turned this around, he was given the
executive’s role at BskyB in 2003. Promoted to take charge of
the NewsCorp business in Europe and Asia in 2007, he is now
the bookies’ favourite to take over when Rupert goes. But one
should not forget Murdoch’s elder daughter, Prudence
MacLeod, who does not have job in News Corp herself but she
has declared that her oldest son, teenager James MacLeod, is a
lot like his famous grandfather and may also want to take over
the world one day. Fortunately, News Corp is large enough to
give them all interesting employment should they need it. It had
been thought that James Murdoch, the third child born to
Rupert’s second wife, was most likely to inherit the empire. That
was before he became embroiled in the phone-hacking scandal
at the News of the World. In a concession to shareholders,
parliamentary inquisitors and anyone else troubled by the
behaviour of Murdoch’s British newspapers, it was revealed that
James has resigned from the boards of The Times of London
