Murdoch: The media mogul is considering a merger in his empire

10/20/22 7:00PM

Empire rebuilding‍

‍91-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch is eyeing a reunion of his major assets, exploring the remerging of Fox Corp. and News Corp. almost a decade after splitting them up back in 2013.

Thought to be a precursor to a smooth succession, a combination of the two companies would put a number of influential assets under the same corporate umbrella. Through a family trust, Murdoch controls 39% and 42% of the voting stock in News and Fox Corp., respectively, giving him substantial control over the operations of both companies. But after a number of transactions over the last two decades, what's left in the Murdoch empire?

‍Media mass

‍‍Fox Corp. currently houses most of the TV & cable assets that weren’t sold to Disney back in 2019. The Fox Network, combined with cable programming like Fox Business, Sports and News, brought in nearly $14bn in revenue last year.

‍News Corp., meanwhile, is a broader church. It encompasses digital real estate assets such as the REA Group and Realtor.com, book publishers Harper Collins, and news outlets across the world like the WSJ, Barrons, MarketWatch, The New York Post, The Times and more.

Separated, the two are already mega companies. News Corp.’s market cap is currently just shy of $10bn and Fox Corp.’s is $15.7bn. Together, so the theory goes, they would be a bigger entity with more financial power to take on competitors — an appealing proposition for whichever heir succeeds Murdoch Snr.

Max Knoblauch1h

Premium seats help push airlines higher following third-quarter results

Shares of American Airlines are climbing toward the carrier’s best trading day since August 12, when ultra-budget rival Spirit issued its initial warning about its ability to survive. American’s shares are up more than 7% on Friday afternoon.

Investors’ optimism comes a day after American posted a better than expected full-year earnings forecast. In a call with investors, American said that it’s ramping up its premium cabin offerings.

“Our ability to grow capacity in premium markets will be further supported as we take delivery of new aircraft and reconfigure our existing fleet. These efforts will allow us to grow our premium seats at nearly two times the rate of main cabin seats,” said CEO Robert Isom. American’s CFO Devin May said that nose-to-tail retrofits of certain widebody jets will bump the number of premium seats available on those planes by 25%.

Extra legroom has been a boon for major carriers, particularly this quarter. Delta Air Lines said its premium product revenue grew 9% in Q3, compared to a 4% drop in economy seat revenue. Similarly, United Airlines said its premium revenue grew 6%, outpacing economy. Shares of both airlines were up more than 3% on Friday.

Carriers with less exposure to first- and business-class tickets like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue didn’t see the same amount of momentum on the day.