Rupert Murdoch is an Australian-born American media tycoon at the head of a global news media and entertainment empire that encompasses some of the world’s most well-known media brands. Since July 1, 2013, they have sat under two publicly traded umbrella companies, News Corp and Fox Corporation. Bloomberg currently estimates Murdoch’s personal worth at $19.4 billion, which places him at number 46 on their list.
Having inherited his first newspaper company, News Ltd, in 1952 following the death of his father, Sir Keith Murdoch — a noted journalist and publisher in Australia — titles under his control today are some of the most widely circulated in the world. These include The Sun, The Times, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal.
Now approaching his nineties, members of Murdoch’s direct family have long been part of his staff, rising to executive, board and director-level roles throughout their careers. Currently, his oldest daughter Prudence, although described as the one member of the family not competing for his business affections, serves as a board member of News Corp subsidiary, Times Newspapers Ltd, while his second daughter Elisabeth ran her own production company Shine — responsible for programs like Big Brother and MasterChef — until her father acquired it in 2011. First son Lachlan serves as Chairman of Fox Corporation as well as Co-Chairman with his father of News Corp, and the youngest son James, among several roles, is still serving as CEO of the Fox Corporation, which agreed to sell a number of its assets to Disney in a deal worth $66 billion in late 2017. At the same time, Morgan Stanley estimated that the value of News Corp was around $3.7 billion.
