Rupert Murdoch's son and heir apparent at the News Corporation, Lachlan Murdoch, abruptly resigned from his executive posts at the media company on Friday and said he was moving back to Australia with his family.
His departure raises fresh questions about executive succession at one of the world's most successful and powerful media companies. Though Rupert Murdoch, 74, has refused to publicly pick a successor, it was widely believed that he favored Lachlan, his oldest son, to replace him as chief executive and chairman upon his retirement.
The company said Lachlan Murdoch, 33, would remain on News Corporation's board but would relinquish his executive posts, which include deputy chief operating officer. He is also the publisher of the New York Post.
PHOTO: AP
"I look forward to returning home to Australia with my wife, Sarah, and son, Kalan, in the very near future. I would like especially to thank my father for all he has taught me in business and in life. It is now time for me to apply those lessons to the next phase of my career," he said in a statement.
Rupert Murdoch said: "I am particularly saddened by my son's decision and thanked him for his terrific contribution to the company, and also his agreement to stay on the board and advise us in a number of areas."
With Lachlan's departure, the front runners to replace Rupert Murdoch now are James Murdoch, his 32-year-old son who runs the company's British satellite-TV operation, and Peter Chernin, News Corp's president and chief operating officer.
"The investment community has an interest in figuring this out as well because you would probably come down on the side, in the near term, of Peter Chernin vs his sons. We are in kind of an ambiguous place right now," said Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
Though Murdoch has long wanted one of his sons to succeed him, investors and analysts prefer Chernin, 51, with his greater experience and lack of family ties.
"From an investor's standpoint there was an ongoing fear of nepotism that is lifted, or at least partially lifted, by his departure," Richard Greenfield, an analyst with Fulcrum Global Partners, said referring to Lachlan Murdoch.
Other media companies like Disney have eyed Chernin as a candidate for top jobs, a factor that could play into the thinking of News Corp's board, which would not want to see such a senior executive leave to join a competitor.
Greenfield said he doesn't expect Lachlan Murdoch's decision to have any significant impact on News Corp.'s operations, because Rupert Murdoch and Chernin remain in control.
"It further cements the fact that if anything happens to Murdoch in the next year or two that Peter Chernin, the No. 2, will take his place," he said.
Rupert Murdoch built News Corp from a small Australian newspaper company that he inherited from his father into one of the world's biggest and most prominent media companies over the course of several decades. Now based in New York, it owns or controls properties that include the Fox network, the Times of London and DirecTV. The Murdoch family's 30 percent stake in the company is the largest of any entity.
But how much control the family will be able to maintain has recently been called into question. Liberty Media, which is led by Murdoch's friend and sometime business ally John Malone, has amassed an 18 percent stake in News Corp and may be considering buying even more shares. News Corporation and Liberty executives have been in negotiations over the matter.
News Corp shares were down US$0.14 to US$17.43 in New York trading at midday on Friday.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure