Gambling in Reno: What’s next for the Murdochs.

“No-one has ever seen Rupert give up a fight.”

Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash

Rupert Murdoch has been riding multiple horses at the circus these past few months, cashing in Fox stock worth $44 million and selling his apartment at One Madison, New York for $23.8 million, taking a rare $20 million loss on the sale. (Gawk at the interior photos of the Flatiron neighborhood triplex penthouse here if you wish.) It seems likely he’ll be spending a good chunk of the proceeds on legal fees as the fight over the Murdoch Family Trust continues into 2025.

Last month a Probate Commissioner in Nevada blocked a proposed change to the trust that would have given voting control to Lachlan Murdoch, after Rupert passes away. The change argued by father and son, would have effectively disenfranchised James, Elisabeth and Prudence who want to maintain their equal say over management at two of the world’s most powerful names in news: Fox and News Corp. I’m told James Murdoch was jubilant when he first heard the decision, but the game isn’t over yet. A judge still has to endorse the decision. “No-one has ever seen Rupert give up a fight; it's not something he does,” said one person familiar with conversations.

Rupert’s hot shot lawyer Adam Streisand, first tapped in 2022, has launched an appeal to Judge Connie Steinheimer, though it would be unusual if she doesn’t rubber stamp the Commissioner’s decision, according to my sources. The appeal would have to argue that the process went wrong since the facts are established. “It’s designed to withstand appeal,” said a source. That decision is expected in mid-January.

Then the next stop is the Nevada State Supreme Court - and perhaps even the US Supreme Court, meaning this court battle could line lawyers' pockets for years. Of course, reporters will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of documents coming unsealed in the process. Smartmatic, the voting machine company which slapped Fox News with a lawsuit after the 2020 election, is trying to access documents too, according to CNN.

So far only the New York Times’ Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg, a former New York Post reporter, have had the inside track. You can read their latest coverage here. Was James Murdoch their link to the sealed documents? People familiar with the wrangling point in his direction. His representative at the Murdoch Family Trust is Jesse Angelo, the former New York Post publisher who successfully transformed the print paper into a viable digital proposition.

Despite the deep fissures between James and Lachlan, there has been an olive branch of sorts. James, Elisabeth and Prudence issued a statement in the wake of the decision sharing their hopes that relationships can be rebuilt. I’m told that statement was spearheaded by Elisabeth and her team which includes PR strategist Paddy Harverson, a former communications secretary to the Royal family, and Mark Devereux, a founder of law firm Olswang, and president of Elisabeth’s Freelands Family Investment Group. Another person countered that the statement came from all three siblings.

Meanwhile, as if to show he’s as vigorous as ever, the 93 year-old Rupert Murdoch traversed the globe to spend the holidays in his homeland for the first time in six years, bringing along new wife Elena Zhukova, a Jewish scientist. He attended Lachlan’s annual holiday party where Australian politicians, investment bankers and Sky News Australia anchors sipped Dom Perignon with adman Dave Droga and former New York Post boss Col Allan, according to AFR’s media reporter Sam Buckingham-Jones who noted that only a few lucky guests got to spend, “five minutes with God,” in the VIP room. As ever the Mailonline had all the photos.

Rupert also visited two synagogues while home, highlighting his support for Israel. Just over a week ago, the Central Sydney synagogue hosted a rousing pre-Hanukkah event in Rupert’s honor. Rupert and Lachlan attended wearing skull caps. Video coverage of the visit here includes Rupert’s words of support for Israel. Earlier in December, he visited the Adas Israel synagogue in Melbourne, the site of an anti-semitic arson attack.

Being home in Australia, perhaps unleashed a flood of memories of happy times with his late mother Dame Elisabeth and his children at Cavan Station, the merino wool farm in New South Wales where the family has traditionally gathered for the holidays. With never a moment to waste, Rupert and Lachlan were busy remaking the two family controlled public companies at a time of huge change for the media business.

In case you missed it, two days before Christmas, News Corp shed its Australian pay-TV company, Foxtel, to global sports streamer DAZN, in a deal valued at $2.1 billion including debt. DAZN’s backer is Ukrainian-born multi billionaire Len Blavatnik. Foxtel operates Fox Sports and holds rights to the Australian Football League and the National Rugby League. Notably, News Corp also gets a six percent stake in DAZN. The sale is part of a plan to shift out of declining businesses and into growth stories, like streaming video and digital real estate. “Critically, it is the first tangible outcome of management’s corporate structure review, a protracted process causing some angst among investors,” Morningstar analyst Brian Han told Reuters.

With news of the family fractures in the headlines, there’s talk of more asset sales, if that’s right, then there are more acquisitions ahead too. Lachlan who is CEO of Fox and Chairman of News Corp said as much to analysts. Thanks to a strong balance sheet at Fox he’s in the market for some M&A. The Trump administration will surely provide a Murdoch-friendly regulatory environment and potentially slow roll any transactions involving Comcast’s MSNBC or Warner’s CNN. Just ask AT&T about that.

Hollywood tipsters suggest that Lionsgate with a potential $4 billion to $5 billion price tag would be a good pairing for Fox. Bloomberg reported that an activist investor is pushing the Lionsgate to sell itself once it separates from Starz. Its library could help drive growth at Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service, as it looks to become a billion dollar revenue business.

Thanks to the sale of some of the Fox assets to Disney at the top of the market, Murdoch's four eldest kids are all multi-billionaires, but that hasn’t cooled any of the angst about how things play out once Dad passes away. At this stage it would seem very difficult to remove Lachlan from his position - investors would have to be convinced that someone else could do it better. Would they prefer James in the driver’s seat? The only way to settle the dispute would appear to be a pay-out for their voting shares, but if you think this is just about money, then I have some land to sell you in the Outback. It’s very much about how the siblings view the Murdoch family legacy.

Besides, the family trust isn’t Rupert’s only source of legal headaches as he looks ahead to 2025. Prince Harry is still threatening revenge over phone hacking. The eight week trial is expected to start this month. This year’s knife fights in the mud are only just getting started.

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