‘NOT OPTIMAL’

Rupert Murdoch Pulls the Plug on News Corp.-Fox Corp. Merger

In a Tuesday letter to his board of directors, Murdoch said his proposed remarriage was ultimately “not optimal” for shareholders.

Rupert Murdoch has withdrawn his proposal to remerge Fox Corp. and News Corp. nine years after they split, sending a letter to his board of directors on Tuesday announcing the decision. “In withdrawing the proposal, Mr. Murdoch indicated that he and Lachlan K. Murdoch have determined that a combination is not optimal for shareholders of News Corp and Fox at this time,” News Corp’s board wrote in a press release announcing that Murdoch had pulled the plug on a merger. “As a result of this action, the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of News Corp has been dissolved.” The 91-year-old mogul and his son sought to reunite the media empire, which split up following a phone-hacking scandal in 2013, but the proposal faced investor opposition. As Confider reported earlier this month, Murdoch had hoped to remarry his two companies and eventually give the top job to key lieutenant Rebekah Jones, currently CEO of News UK.

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