Lachlan Murdoch’s Next Era of Empire Building at Fox, News Corp

There was a time, just a few months ago, when the smart money was on Rupert Murdoch losing his grip on the media empire that he created. A failed effort to alter the family’s irrevocable trust meant that the future of his two companies: News Corp. and Fox Corp., arguably the two most influential and powerful media giants in the U.S., were in question.

His chosen son, Lachlan, was running the show, and had been for a number of years, but unless they succeeded in persuading a court to alter the trust, Lachlan’s siblings James Murdoch, Elisabeth Murdoch and Prudence MacLeod, would have effective veto power and control of the companies. Would Rupert and Lachlan sell off the empire while the regulatory state of affairs was in their favor, and before Rupert’s passing (or the year 2030, whichever came first) caused a family crisis? Would they sell off pieces of it to pay for a deal?

Then on Sept. 8 – Lachlan Murdoch’s 54th birthday no less – he received the ultimate present: The keys to the kingdom. Lachlan’s siblings cashed out of the family business in a $3.3 billion settlement that stunned the media industry, and arguably ended an entire era.

The family settlement has significant ramifications that will reverberate across the media landscape for decades to come. Lachlan will retain control until at least 2050, ensuring that the conservative bones of both companies remain secure, consolidating its power and influence, and also reassuring investors concerned that a Fox pivot would harm its core business.

The settlement “removes any risk that a change to Fox News’ politics would degrade the value of Fox’s assets,” MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman wrote in a Sept. 9 note.

“This resolution of the Murdoch Family Trust should remove an overhang on Fox because of the many different permutations investors needed to weigh that could have negatively impacted the value of the company,” Fishman adds. “Fox can now turn its attention fully toward strategic initiatives without fear of a succession standstill if the issue had remained unresolved a few years down the line.”

It also gives Lachlan Murdoch carte blanche to remake the family empire as he sees fit. Yes, the settlement dilutes his control over the companies from 44 percent of voting shares at Fox and 41 percent at News Corp. to 36 percent and 33 percent, but that is still more than enough to ward off activists or hostile takeovers.

To be certain, Lachlan’s imprint has already been felt across his family’s properties. He was the driving force behind Fox’s $440 million purchase of the free ad-supported streaming service Tubi in 2020, and the company has made a concerted push into creator-driven content with the acquisition of Red Seat Ventures and other deals, putting it in position to hedge itself against declines in the linear TV ecosystem.

But Wall Street now thinks that with the concerns of a succession battle gone, the real dealmaking can begin. Fox, after all, has one of the most enviable balance sheets in media, with little debt, and a ton of cashflow.

“Now that Lachlan Murdoch has cemented control in a post-Rupert world, we would not be surprised to see an increased level of aggressiveness around M&A. While Fox bought back $1.25 billion of stock in 2025, with the company dramatically outperforming its industry peers, the company is sitting on considerable balance sheet firepower,” Lightshed analyst Rich Greenfield wrote Sept. 8, adding that investing more into original content for Fox One could be something that the company considers as well (Fox One already cut a deal to add a show from Nancy Grace, suggesting that executives are already contemplating content deals).

But the settlement also marks the beginning of what appears to be a new era forming in media, one that will likely look radically different than the media of old. After all, platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram have changed consumption habits dramatically, and the media gatekeepers don’t hold the cards they once did.

Just as Lachlan is entrenched at Fox, at Paramount another scion, David Ellison, is asserting himself, preparing for what will likely be a decades-long run atop a legendary studio and the owner of CBS. Deal talks with Bari Weiss and the naming of conservative think tank veteran Kenneth Weinstein as ombudsman suggest that CBS News could be taking a decidedly different approach to news than the old model of broadcast TV, while mega deals for the likes of UFC and Call of Duty suggest that the company sees a strategy in luring younger men to its platforms.

Both companies are said to be salivating for deals, and they are doing so when a good deal of the competition is splitting itself up: Comcast spinning off CNBC, MSNBC and other cable channels into Versant, and Warner Bros. Discovery splitting itself into two companies, Warner Bros. and Discovery.

Already there have been rumblings of Ellison coveting Warner Bros. and there has been interest from buyers salivating over CNBC (though Versant has no interest in selling that particular asset).

The Walt Disney Co., meanwhile, is closing in on a decision for its new CEO, the chosen successor to Bob Iger, who is widely expected to retire, for good this time. Whoever takes control of that company will have to chart their own course, including a decision about the future of its own investments in linear TV via ABC and ESPN.

But the overlap in the Venn diagram between business and influence isn’t always as large or obvious as it may seem. It was clear that for the Murdoch family, maintaining influence was the driving factor in a deal.

In fact, that was a core part of the Murdoch family’s trust dispute. The thrust of Rupert Murdoch’s case revolved around maintaining Fox as a conservative political media force by ensuring that Lachlan’s siblings wouldn’t be able to wrest control of the company from him and moderate its coverage. By his thinking, Lachlan would stay the course and maintain the current editorial direction of Fox, which has seen its ratings rise over the past year even as the number of pay TV viewers have fallen off a cliff.

Fox News ended the summer as the most watched channel on TV, toppling the broadcasters CBS, NBC and ABC, while Fox Sports is riding high on the return of the NFL and college football. At News Corp., Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal have never been more relevant, and the company is plotting a California expansion of the New York Post.

But it was a losing argument in court. Not only did probate court commissioner Edmund Gorman call the secret attempt to change the family trust a “carefully crafted charade” to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s” control, he accused Rupert’s personal representatives, including former Attorney General Bill Barr, of demonstrating a “dishonesty of purpose and motive” in voting to approve the changes without properly probing whether they’d be favorable to Elisabeth, Prudence and James.

With the ruling, the triumvirate held the cards. Time wasn’t on Rupert or Lachlan’s side. Before the settlement, the trio would’ve been free to sell their shares when the trust expired in 2030, risking the family’s control of the business. And if Rupert died before then, they could’ve formed voting bloc to oppose Lachlan.

Rupert had little time to reach a deal. Lawyers for President Trump, in a defamation lawsuit against News. Corp, pointed to their belief that the media scion has “suffered recent significant health scares,” including a broken back, seizures and two bouts of pneumonia in recent years. In February, it was reported that he collapsed during a breakfast with a British media exec who heads up his U.K. operations.

A possible opening that could’ve brought Lachlan’s oldest siblings back to the negotiating table: A profile of James published by The Atlantic in which he improperly shared details of the sealed case while questioning Lachlan’s leadership. Adam Streisand, a lawyer for Rupert, used James’ cooperation for the story as ammunition for overturning the ruling and asking for a new trial.

At one point, of course, James was Rupert’s heir apparent, running 21st Century Fox as CEO, right up until Rupert cut a deal with Disney to sell Fox’s entertainment assets, at what it turns out was the peak of peak TV. James held talks for a role at Disney, but ultimately left the company, with Lachlan consolidating control.

A year later he would also exit the board of News Corp., making public his disdain for the company’s politics: “My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions,” he wrote in a letter to the News Corp. Board.

Now he is officially out of the family business, albeit about $1.1 billion more liquid than before, just as Shari Redstone has exited the empire her father built a few billion dollars more liquid.

Put simply, the Murdoch family deal is the end of an era: The Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone era is over, but a new media era with a new set of moguls seems poised to begin, with Big Tech increasingly seen as the enemy.

Winston Cho contributed reporting.

This story appeared in the Sept. 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.