Rupert Murdoch has announced he will step down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp.
His son Lachlan Murdoch will become sole chairman of both companies.
“For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change,” Murdoch wrote in a memo to employees on Thursday.
“But the time is right for me to take on different roles, knowing that we have truly talented teams and a passionate, principled leader in Lachlan who will become sole chairman of both companies.”
The 92-year-old media mogul, who got into the newspaper business in Australia the 1950s, became a major Hollywood executive in 1985 when he purchased Twentieth Century Fox from oilman Marvin Davis for US$600 million ($937.8 million in today’s exchange rate) .
Read Related Also: 'A conservative's nightmare': Lawsuit prompted by Seattle DEI training
In 1986, Murdoch got into the TV business after he purchased several US television stations and created Fox Broadcasting.
Fox News launched in 1996 as a startup competitor to CNN. It eventually became the No. 1 cable news channel in America and a bastion for Republican talking points and falsehoods.
Under Murdoch’s leadership, Fox News, a crown jewel of his profitable media empire, has echoed election lies espoused by former President Donald Trump in the wake of the 2020 election.
Fox Corp ultimately paid US$787 million ($1.23 billion) in a defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems and faces another lawsuit from Dominion competitor Smartmatic.
