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

10/20/22 8:00PM

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.

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Texas sues Netflix, accusing streamer of spying on children and collecting user data without consent

The state of Texas filed a lawsuit Monday against streaming giant Netflix, alleging that the company has built a “behavioral-surveillance program of staggering scale.”

The suit alleges that Netflix is “deceptively designed” to be addictive, using features like autoplay to get viewers hooked, “mining those users for data, and then converting that data into lucrative intelligence for global advertising juggernauts.”

“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you,” the lawsuit reads.

“This lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information,” Netflix said in a statement to Sherwood News. “Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data‑protection laws everywhere we operate.”

Texas is seeking civil penalties of “up to $10,000 per violation” of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, along with an additional penalty of up to $250,000 per violation involving a consumer aged 65 or older.

“Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be. Instead, it has misled consumers while exploiting their private data to make billions,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the press release announcing the lawsuit.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.