By Dawn Chmielewski
(Reuters) - The Murdoch family has reached a deal that will see Rupert Murdoch's politically conservative eldest son Lachlan Murdoch cement control of the family media empire which includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.
The deal, announced on Monday, ends a family brawl over who will control one of the highest-profile global media groups and puts to rest questions of succession within the Murdoch family after its patriarch's death.
Under the agreement, Rupert's children James
Murdoch, Elisabeth Murdoch and Prudence MacLeod will receive cash from the sale of about 16.9 million shares of Fox Class B stock and about 14.2 million shares of News Corp's Class B common stock. The amount of the payment was not disclosed.
Citing an unnamed source, the New York Times reported each of the children are expected to receive about $1.1 billion in proceeds.
They agreed to sell their personal holdings in Fox and News Corp over a period of six months, according to the announcement.
A new family trust will be created to benefit Lachlan Murdoch, and his younger siblings, Grace Murdoch and Chloe Murdoch, who are Rupert Murdoch's children from his marriage to Wendi Deng Murdoch. This trust, worth about $3.3 billion, according to the Times, will hold all the Murdoch family's remaining shares of Fox and News Corp.
News Corp declined to comment on the New York Times' valuation of the new family trust's holdings, or the amount the departing Murdoch children would receive. Fox did not reply to a request for comment.
A battle over Rupert Murdoch's global television and publishing empire played out last autumn in a Reno, Nevada, courtroom, where a judge considered the contentious matter of succession.
Murdoch, 94, attempted to change the terms of the family’s trust - which holds significant stakes in Fox News parent Fox and Wall Street Journal owner News Corp.
He was looking to ensure that, upon his death, the media companies would remain under control of Lachlan Murdoch, according to the New York Times, which obtained a sealed court document detailing the succession drama.
A Nevada court rejected that plan in December, saying that Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch had acted in "bad faith" in seeking to amend the irrevocable trust.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona, Franklin Paul and Nia Williams)
