James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is a British-American businessman. He is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.
He was the chairman and CEO for Europe and Asia of News Corporation until 2013 when it was split into News Corp and 21st Century Fox. He was formerly a director of News Corp and was a member of the office of the chairman.
Murdoch was executive chairman of News International from 2007. He previously held a non-executive chair at British Sky Broadcasting, in which News Corporation had a controlling minority stake. In April 2012, he was forced to resign as chairman of BSkyB in the wake of the ongoing phone hacking scandal, in which he was implicated and severely criticised in a parliamentary report. He was reappointed chairman of the company following its merger with its Italian and German sister companies to form Sky plc.
In July 2020, he resigned from the board of News Corp due to disagreements with its editorial content and strategic direction.
In 2021, Murdoch set up the Indian arm of his family office, Lupa Systems India, as a joint venture with businessman Uday Shankar.
As of September 2024[update], the whole Murdoch family is involved in a court case in the US in which James, his sister Elisabeth and half-sister Prudence are challenging their father's bid to amend the family trust to ensure that his eldest son, Lachlan, retains control of News Corp and Fox Corp, rather than benefiting all of his six children, as is specified in the "irrevocable" terms of the trust.
Early life and education
James Rupert Jacob Murdoch[1] was born on 13 December 1972 at Wimbledon Hospital in Wimbledon, London, England.[2][3] He is the fourth child of billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch's six children, and the third with Scottish-born journalist and author Anna Murdoch Mann (née Torv),[4] the others being Elisabeth and Lachlan.[5]
As a youngster James was regarded as the brightest of the Murdoch children, but also considered something of a rebel.[6] He first came to public notice as a 15-year-old intern at the Sydney Daily Mirror but made headlines in the rival The Sydney Morning Herald after he was photographed asleep on a sofa at a press conference.[6]
In 1996, Murdoch joined News Corporation and was appointed chairman of Festival Records. He took charge of News Corporation's internet operations, where he invested in a series of ventures, including financial website TheStreet and the short-lived online music site Whammo, with mixed results.[6] He also continued to contribute cartoons to US magazine Gear.[citation needed]
He is credited with sparking his father's interest in the internet, and he reportedly tried to persuade his father to buy internet company PointCast for US$450 million. It was subsequently sold to another company for $7million.[6]
After installing a new management team at Festival, Murdoch purchased the controlling 51% share of Mushroom Records in 1999, and the merged group was rebranded as Festival Mushroom Records (FMR).[7] It was at first thought that News Corporation might use FMR as the foundation of a new international entertainment company, but FMR struggled while Murdoch was in charge and after his departure its fortunes declined rapidly. FMR was closed in late 2005 and its remaining assets were sold: the recording catalogue was sold to the Australian division of Warner Music for A$10million in October 2005, and the publishing division was sold to Michael Gudinski a month later, for an undisclosed sum.[8]
In May 2000, Murdoch was appointed chairman and chief executive of News Corporation's ailing Asian satellite service Star Television, which at the time was losing £100 million a year, and he moved to Hong Kong.[6]
In February 2003, Murdoch became a director of BSkyB. Later that year, he controversially became CEO of BSkyB, in which News Corporation owns a controlling minority stake. His appointment sparked accusations of nepotism, with some commentators and shareholders feeling that the job had not been opened to outsiders and that Murdoch was too young and inexperienced to run one of the UK's top companies[9] He was an executive vice-president of News Corporation (t(controlling shareholder of BSkyB) and served on the board of directors of News Datacom and of News Corporation.[6]
Following the surprise resignation of his brother Lachlan Murdoch from his executive positions at News Corporation in July 2005, James was viewed as his father's heir-apparent.[10]
Murdoch at a digital media conference in 2006
In December 2007, Murdoch stepped down as CEO from BSkyB and was appointed non-executive chairman of the company (a position formerly held by his father, Rupert).[11]
In February 2009, Murdoch was appointed a non-executive director with the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.[13]
In August 2009, Murdoch delivered the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, in which he attacked the BBC and UK media regulator Ofcom calling the BBC's expansion "chilling" and also said: "In this all-media marketplace, the expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision, which are so important for our democracy."[10][14] The BBC chairman, Sir Michael Lyons officially responded, "We have to be careful not to reduce the whole of broadcasting to some simple economic transactions. The BBC's public purposes stress the importance of the well-tested principles of educating and informing, and an impartial contribution to debate in the UK."[15]
In April 2010, Murdoch and his associate Rebekah Brooks entered the offices of The Independent to complain about an advertisement campaign by the newspaper.[16]
He was executive chairman of News International from 2007[17] until February 2012.[18] He previously held a non-executive chair at British Sky Broadcasting, in which News Corporation had a controlling minority stake. In April 2012, he was forced to resign as chairman of BSkyB in the wake of the ongoing phone hacking scandal, in which he was implicated.[19]
In April 2014, it was announced that Murdoch would join the board of advertising start-up True[X] Media.[20]
In June 2015, his father, Rupert, announced that he would be leaving his position as CEO of 21st Century Fox and James would take over the position.[21]
In January 2016, Murdoch became the chairman of Sky, Britain's subscription broadcaster.[22]
In July 2017, Murdoch became an independent director on the board of Tesla.[23]
In October 2018, Murdoch left Sky after Comcast took the majority control of the company.[24]
Murdoch was a director of News Corp in August 2019.[26] In July 2020, he resigned from the board. His resignation letter stated that his resignation was "due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions".[27][28][29] He criticised the "ongoing denial of the role of climate change" seen in the Australian outlets, following the particularly devastating 2019–20 Australian bushfire season.[5]
In 2021, Murdoch set up the Indian arm of his family office, Lupa Systems India, as a joint venture with businessman Uday Shankar.[30] The aim of the joint venture was to focus on media, education, and the healthcare sectors in Asia, particularly India. In May 2022, Lupa India (renamed to Bodhi Tree Systems) announced a $600 million investment in the test-prep company Allen Career Institute Private Limited for a 36% stake, and completed the deal in July.[31] In April 2023, Bodhi Tree acquired a 13% stake in the Reliance-owned media and entertainment company, Viacom18, and subsequently increased it to 16% by August 2023.[32] In February 2024, Viacom18 and Disney-Star India entered into a joint venture to form an $8.5 billion entity.[33]
On 19 July 2011, along with his father, Rupert, he appeared at a hearing of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee. He appeared once again before the same committee on 10 November 2011. James maintained that until late in 2010 he was unaware that more than one "rogue reporter" from the News of the World tabloid had been involved in phone hacking.[35] This statement was challenged by the formal legal manager and editor for the newspaper, who claimed they had informed James of the "Transcript for Neville" email, a potential "smoking gun" indicating several of the newspaper's journalists may have been involved, during the settlement negotiations with Gorden Taylor in 2008 and alerted him to the potential liability if this document became public.[citation needed] On 22 July 2011, Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, said that Murdoch had "questions to answer in Parliament," a day after former top executives of the News of the World accused the News Corporation executive of giving "mistaken" evidence.[36]
In November 2011, British newspapers reported that Murdoch had resigned as chairman of News Group Newspapers, the holding company above The Sun, News of the World and Times Newspapers Ltd, itself owner of The Times and The Sunday Times. News Group Newspapers is the company subject to a series of lawsuits, all related to the phone hacking scandal. James Murdoch's resignation was also said to be related to the 12 October 2011 resignation[clarification needed] of another Dow Jones executive, Andrew Langhoff, after a company whistleblower revealed an editorial scam and questionable circulation dealings at The Wall Street Journal Europe.[37][38]
In February 2012, News Corp announced that Murdoch would be stepping down as executive chairman of its British newspaper arm. The company said he would remain deputy chief operating officer of News Corp and focus on the company's international TV business,[39] including continued responsibility for BSkyB.[40] He stepped down also from the GlaxoSmithKline board.[41] In April 2012, he stood down as chairman of BSkyB, but remained on the board.[42] He was replaced as chairman by Nicholas Ferguson.[citation needed] In May 2012, a highly critical UK Parliamentary report said that Murdoch "showed wilful ignorance of the extent of phone-hacking" and found him "guilty of an astonishing lack of curiosity" over the issue.[43] It went on to say that both Murdoch and his father "should ultimately be prepared to take responsibility" for wrongdoing at the News of the World and News International.[44] In September 2012, Murdoch was criticised by the British Office of Communications (Ofcom), which concluded that he "repeatedly fell short of the conduct to be expected of as a chief executive and chairman" and that his lack of action in relation to phone hacking was "difficult to comprehend and ill-judged".[45]
In September 2024, the whole Murdoch family is involved in a court case in Reno, Nevada, in which James, his sister Elisabeth and half-sister Prudence MacLeod are challenging their father's bid to amend the family trust to ensure that his eldest son, Lachlan, retains control of News Corp and Fox Corp, rather than benefiting all of his six children, as is specified in the "irrevocable" terms of the trust. According to The New York Times, Murdoch Snr wants his companies to remain politically conservative, and sees his other children as too politically liberal.[5][46]
The irrevocable family trust was set up after Rupert and Anna Murdoch's divorce in 1999, to hold the family's 28.5% stake in News Corp. It relates only to the children born before then, giving them equal say in the fate of the business after Rupert's death.[47] Chloe and Grace Murdoch, Rupert's children with third wife Wendi Deng, will have no say in the business,[48] although will share the stock proceeds.[47] The case follows Rupert's attempt to change the trust in 2023, and the Nevada probate commissioner's finding that he was allowed to amend the trust "if he is able to show he is acting in good faith and for the sole benefit of his heirs".[46] Rupert Murdoch is arguing interference by the other siblings would cause a financial loss to Fox, and therefore "in their own best interests if they have their votes taken away from them".[49] He argues that preserving the outlet's conservative editorial stance against interference by the more politically moderate siblings would better protect its commercial value.[47]
The case has led to the three children becoming estranged from their father, with none of them attending his wedding to his fifth wife, Elena Zhukova, in June 2024.[46]
Personal life and other activities
Murdoch is a British citizen by birth and a naturalised US citizen.[50] Apart from full siblings Elisabeth and Lachlan Murdoch, he has three half-siblings, including an elder half-sister Prudence, and two younger half-sisters by his father's third marriage to Wendi Deng, Grace and Chloe.[5]
Murdoch was instrumental in the formation of Sky Procycling and is a keen cyclist himself.[51] He maintains an early morning gym routine and has a black belt in karate.[52][53]
Since 2014, James and Kathryn have run the Quadrivium Foundation,[55][56] which supports "initiatives that address the root causes of problems and where single actions can create multiple positive outcomes". It is focused on five key areas: democracy, technology and society, scientific understanding, climate change, and the health of the world's oceans. It invests in evidence-based solutions to problems.[57]
In 2020, Murdoch and his wife each donated US$615,000 to the Biden campaign.[59] In September 2024, he was one of 88 American corporate leaders who signed an open letter endorsing vice-president Kamala Harris for president.[5]
He has been highly critical of Fox News' promotion of Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud after he lost the 2020 election. Fox was subsequently successfully sued for defamation, losing over $US787 million in costs.[5]
Keith Rupert Murdoch is an Australian-born American business magnate, investor, and media proprietor. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including in the UK, in Australia, in the US, book publisher HarperCollins, and the television broadcasting channels Sky News Australia and Fox News. He was also the owner of Sky, 21st Century Fox, and the now-defunct News of the World. With a net worth of US$21.7billion as of 2 March 2022, Murdoch is the 31st richest person in the United States and the 71st richest in the world according to Forbes magazine.
Sky Group Limited is a British media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a subsidiary of the American conglomerate Comcast, and headquartered in Isleworth. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Sky is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue, with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019. The company is primarily involved in satellite television, producing and broadcasting. The current CEO is Dana Strong.
The original incarnation of News Corporation was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Prior to its split in 2013, it was the world's largest media company in terms of total assets and the world's fourth largest media group in terms of revenue. It had become a media powerhouse since its inception, dominating the news, television, film, and print industries.
News Corp UK & Ireland Limited is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Sun newspapers; its former publications include the Today, News of the World, and The London Paper newspapers. It was established in February 1981 under the name News International plc. In June 2002, the company name was changed to News International Limited, and on 31 May 2011, to NI Group Limited, and on 26 June 2013 to News UK.
Lachlan Keith Murdoch is a British-born Australian-American businessman and mass media heir. He is the son of the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. He is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, chairman of News Corp, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation. In 2023, he was listed 33rd on the list of Australia's wealthiest people, with his wealth estimated at A$3.35 billion.
News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp.
Elisabeth Murdoch is an Australian-born British and American media executive based in the United Kingdom. She was a non-executive chairperson of Shine Group, the UK-based TV programme production company she founded in 2001, until the company's parent 21st Century Fox merged its Shine Group division with Apollo Global Management's Endemol and Core Media production houses, to specialise in reality TV, in 2015. She is the daughter of the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, and is widely believed to be the inspiration for the character Shiv Roy in the television series Succession.
Leslie Frank Hinton is a British-American journalist, writer and business executive whose career with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation spanned more than fifty years. Hinton worked in newspapers, magazines and television as a reporter, editor and executive in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States and became an American citizen in 1986. He was appointed CEO of Dow Jones & Company in December 2007, after its acquisition by News Corp. Hinton has variously been described as Murdoch's "hitman"; one of his "most trusted lieutenants"; and an "astute political operator". He left the company in 2011. His memoir, The Bootle Boy, was published in the UK in May 2018, and in the US under the title An Untidy Life in October of the same year.
Employees of the now-defunct newspaper News of the World engaged in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories.
Controversy over Sky's operation of pay TV services on Freeview began in 2006. It was claimed at various times that Sky was operating in an anti-competitive way in the British pay TV market. Similar concerns arose about Sky's procurement, distribution and charging levels of films on its Sky Movies service. Sky was exonerated by the Competition Commission in August 2012. Sky was found to have overcharged for its Sky Sports channels, and was ordered in 2010 to reduce its charges for these channels. Its terms for supplying the sports channels to other companies were also challenged in 2010–11; some of the complaints were upheld by the regulatory authorities, others were not. Another challenge, in 2009, concerned Sky's charges for listing free-to-air channels on its electronic program guide (EPG).
Thomas Mockridge is the chairman and chief executive officer of Virgin Fibra. Prior to founding the italian-based broadband operator, he has been CEO of Virgin Media until June 2019, CEO of News International until December 2012, and the foundation CEO of Sky Italia until July 2011.
The Chipping Norton set is a group of media, political and show-business acquaintances who have homes near the market town of Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, England. Chipping Norton is located approximately 75 miles from London. The group gained media attention in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal, which directly involved members of the group.
In mid-2011, out of a series of investigations following up the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal of 2005–2007, a series of related scandals developed surrounding other News Corporation properties—where initially the scandal appeared contained to a single journalist at the News of the World, investigations eventually revealed a much wider pattern of wrongdoing. This led to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011, an apology by Rupert Murdoch in an advertisement in most British national newspapers, and the withdrawing of News Corporation's bid to take over the majority of BSkyB shares it did not own.
The News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB was a proposed takeover of British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) by News Corporation, the media conglomerate of Rupert Murdoch. The bid was launched in June 2010 but was withdrawn in July 2011 following the News International phone hacking scandal. News Corporation already owned 39.1% of BSkyB and held onto its stake following the collapse of the takeover bid. The takeover was an essential part of News Corporation's business strategy, not least as it would have made possible integration with other entities such as Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia. The Guardian went so far as to say that, "Without a full takeover of BSkyB, News Corp's global satellite strategy would look an unco-ordinated mess."
This is a chronological list of key newspaper articles that made significant new public disclosures about the illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media companies.
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, following a spin-off of the publishing assets of the old News Corporation as News Corp.
News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on June 28, 2013, following a spin-off of the media outlets of the original News Corporation as 21st Century Fox (21CF). Operating across digital real estate information, news media, book publishing, and cable television, News Corp's notable assets include Dow Jones & Company, which is the publisher of The Wall Street Journal; News UK, publisher of The Sun and The Times; News Corp Australia; and REA Group, operator of realestate.com.au, realtor.com, and book publisher HarperCollins.
Members of the Murdoch family are prominent international media magnates and media tycoons with roots in Australia and the United Kingdom, along with their media assets in the United States. Some members have also been prominent in the arts, clergy, and military.
Fox Corporation is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. Incorporated in Delaware, it was formed as the portion of 21st Century Fox that was not acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2019. The company is controlled by the Murdoch family via a family trust with 39.6% ownership share, and by Rupert Murdoch himself to the effect of almost 40%.
The succession of Rupert Murdoch describes a court case relating to which of American media magnate Rupert Murdoch's children will gain power and influence over his business interests, in particular News Corp and Fox Corporation. Since Murdoch's retirement and as of September 2024, these have been headed by his eldest son Lachlan Murdoch. The case is known as In the Matter of the Doe 1 Trust.
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