{"id":14008,"date":"2017-12-15T05:02:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T11:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=14008"},"modified":"2017-12-15T05:05:05","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T11:05:05","slug":"rupert-murdoch-solves-empire-succession-by-getting-rid-of-sky-the-crown-jewel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=14008","title":{"rendered":"Rupert Murdoch Solves Empire Succession By Getting Rid Of Sky, The Crown Jewel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"Sky is the “crown jewel” of Fox\u2019s assets, says Disney CEO Bob Iger.\u00a0<\/strong>For decades, investors, analysts, busybodies, columnists and gossips have loved to chew over the ultimate media-dynasty question: When Rupert Murdoch was at long last forced to step down — whether for age, coup or scandal — which of his children would assume the throne of his vast empire? James or Lachlan or Elisabeth? Now we know the answer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There will be no vast Murdoch empire to inherit. There will be no throne.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Rupert Murdoch<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Thursday, Walt Disney Co.<\/a> announced it has agreed to pay $52.4 billion to acquire much of the sweeping territory Murdoch spent a lifetime assembling. Among other assets, Disney will take control of 21st Century Fox Inc<\/a>.\u2019s TV and movies studios, its slate of cable TV networks, including FX and National Geographic, its stakes in the satellite-TV networks Sky and Star India, and its 22 regional sports networks. It may even get one of Murdoch\u2019s children in the bargain: James is expected to help Disney with the integration process and may stick around to play a larger role.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not that Murdoch\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>is out of the picture entirely. He\u2019ll still rule over a major broadcast network, a cable sports channel and Fox News.\u00a0In an interview with Sky News<\/a>, Murdoch said he will remain executive chairman, likely with his eldest son Lachlan as chief executive officer. And the Murdochs will hold a stake of more than 4 percent in Disney, ranking them among the largest shareholders. But that\u2019s hardly an empire. In a world increasingly dominated by global tech giants, it\u2019s more like a province. Maybe an enclave.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Perhaps, as some have speculated, the new Fox will reclaim the newspaper and publishing assets Murdoch spun off in 2013 into a separate company, News Corp. But even if that happens, the resulting company will be minuscule in comparison with the sweeping realms of Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple, all of whom who are jockeying to control the future of media, news, information and entertainment.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Elisabeth Murdoch<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Murdochs spent all year talking about how they had scale,\u201d says David Folkenflik, the author of \u201cMurdoch\u2019s World: The last of the old media empires.\u201d \u201cAnd then suddenly they were like, we have to sell to someone else so they can get bigger, so they can fight the giants. It\u2019s too much for us.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the wake of the Disney deal, questions about family-power dynamics will surely persist. But the stakes will be dramatically lower. There is no longer a pressing need to find some brilliant global visionary to replace the patriarch and deftly navigate the complex, multi-variable calculus of the emergent global-streaming sphere. For Fox, the challenges and opportunities will be much smaller, much less daunting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Murdoch, for one, says the sale to Disney is not a retreat. It\u2019s a pivot. \u201cWith today\u2019s announcement, we launch the next great leg of our journey,\u201d he said on a call with investors Thursday. \u201cThe world of media has obviously been undergoing rapid change. New technologies, competitors and shifting consumer preferences have redrawn the whole media map.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

And diminished Murdoch\u2019s place on it.<\/strong><\/p>\n