,MNE3704 Assignment 2 (COMPLETE ANSWERS)
Semester 1 2025 - DUE 31 March 2025
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 and The Sun. Although he remains executive chairman of News
International, the News Corp. subsidiary that publishes the company’s
British newspapers, the decision to distance himself from the papers,
however marginally, is the latest blow to James’s prospects of ever
running News Corp. The heir’s future looks bleaker than seemed
possible just six months ago. Shareholders have already turned against
James.
Semester 1 2025 - DUE 31 March 2025
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 and The Sun. Although he remains executive chairman of News
International, the News Corp. subsidiary that publishes the company’s
British newspapers, the decision to distance himself from the papers,
however marginally, is the latest blow to James’s prospects of ever
running News Corp. The heir’s future looks bleaker than seemed
possible just six months ago. Shareholders have already turned against
James.
