Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is considering reviving the Fox Corporation family. and News Corp., which split into two separate companies about a decade ago. The two directors have formed a committee to explore feasibility.
The News Corporation said this afternoon that its board, at the request of Rupert Murdoch and the Murdoch Family Foundation, had formed a special committee "composed of independent and disinterested board members" to initiate a merger study.
"A selection committee, consistent with its fiduciary duties and in consultation with its independent financial and legal advisers, will carefully consider the possibility of a merger with Fox. At this time, the selection committee has not made any decisions regarding the possibility of such a merger and the Company is in no way interested in the transaction. There is no guarantee that it will be involved," News Corp said in a statement.
Fox released a similar one.
In 2013, Murdoch's empire split in two, with publishing businesses including the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones being placed under the News Corporation umbrella and film and television assets transferred to 21st Century Fox. Most of 21st Century Fox was sold to Disney for $71.3 billion, which closed in 2019.
While News Corp. continuing to grow fairly steadily over the next several years, Fox Corp, the company left by the Disney deal, was significantly weaker and did not own its predecessor studio operations and shares of Hulu. Fox Corporation has grown into a lucrative news and sports company and network of local television stations. However, the company continued to generate significant cash flow, notably by dominating Fox News Channel's ratings and generating substantial advertising revenue, particularly during its two-year election cycle.
Fox Sports is also showing strong results, with the NFL rankings continuing to grow and Fox holding valuable rights to the World Cup and college football.
But in the land of the media giant, Fox Corp. There's clearly a lack of scale, especially given the ongoing cuts to pay-TV packages. The acceleration in cutting cables since the initial divestment of Murdoch's assets cut millions of customers. Their meeting may not lead to immediate synergies, but could be a useful diversification of the combined company's asset mix, raising awareness of the melting of the pay-TV iceberg.
Fox Corp. market value. about $17 billion and News Corp. – 9 billion dollars. Both are many times smaller than big media players like Disney or Comcast.
At 91, Murdoch will likely try to build the media empire he built, which his father started in the newspaper business in Australia.
Family media companies have a history of transitioning from one to two and vice versa. CBS Redstone and Viacom (now Paramount Global) merged, then split, then merged again.
News Corp. stated that neither the company nor the selection committee "intend to comment on or disclose further developments in relation to the work of the selection committee unless they deem it appropriate or necessary for further disclosure."
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