How the Murdoch Family Feud Is Like "Succession" | Pivot

This is an interesting story. Did you see this? Murdoch family and a court battle over who will leave-

Wild.

... News Corp and Fox.

It's wild.

Or, according to-

What do you think of this?

Oh, I know a lot about it. Th- Let me just go through it for people. Currently, the family trust gives each of Rupert Murdoch's children, four children, equal votes. He has two others, but they have ownership, but not votes. Uh, he wants to change that. He made this when he divorced from his wife Anna, um, to, she, this, she insisted on this. Um, Rupert has filed a petition to amend the trust, it's, it's an irrevocable trust, but that's what he's done to give exclusive control to his oldest son, Lachlan. As reasoning, he cites political differences with his other children that could impact editorial stance of his companies. Uh, three other children have responded with a legal challenge. The trial is expected to begin S- September. It's, it's in Nevada where this is, so it's one person who deals with trusts and estates. Um, you know, there's one tiny little out that he's saying he's doing it for the benefit of these people and he's doing it for political reasons. That's not the benefit of shareholders or anything else that L- Lachlan, who's presided over disaster after disaster at the company, including the lawsuits and behaviors and payoffs and everything else. I mean, Lachlan has been a terrible CEO in that regard. Um, I don't think this helps shareholders. Um, I've, uh, you know, what's interesting, I have a little knowledge of these k- these people. Um, they were not together, James, um, uh, Liz, and I think it's Prudence. They were not aligned at all. Liz moved back and forth like Shiv on Succession. You know, she was, she's very much wanting her dad and her to get along. Um, so this united them, which was, of course, another stupid thing Lachlan does 'cause he's as dumb as a box of hammers. Um, so it's really interesting. Um, uh, you know, this is a family that has huge impact on our society, and he's trying to live beyond the grave. This old, crusty old, uh, Dracula is trying to live beyond the grave. What do you think?

Uh, there are few companies I c- I have difficult time thinking of a for-profit company who-

Mm-hmm.

... um, has a greater impact relative to its market capitalization. I mean, I think the market cap of... (sighs) I forget what the market cap is, but it's essentially, you know, it- it- y- you have... Oh, it's $33 billion, which is, um, you know, Warner's 20, which is unfair 'cause it has 40 billion in debt, so it's 60 billion in enterprise value. But it's $33 billion, which is, you know, big, but this is arguably... I mean, you could make a no- you could definitely make an argument this is one of the five or 10 most influential companies in the world, and a lot of people think that this company literally picks the Republican nominee, uh, for president and has a huge influence. And Fox's viewership is really strong. I mean, he's, actually, I don't think it's fair to, to say Lachlan's done a terrible job. I, I think the Dominion case was obviously a huge stubbed toe, but I think that's more about the fact that... Well, anyways, uh, y- I think y- I think it's unfair to say he's mone- done a bad job. What I took from this entire story-