Rupert Murdoch Is Having His King Lear Moment<br />The $52.4 billion deal — which would not include Fox News, the Fox broadcast network or the FS1 sports cable channel, which will be spun off into a newly listed<br />company — has come about as part of the consolidation sweeping over traditional media companies as they try to fight off threats from Amazon, Apple and Netflix.<br />In one possible outcome, James Murdoch would take on an executive position at Disney,<br />and Lachlan Murdoch, who shares his father’s passion for news, would move to News Corporation or oversee the company that absorbs Fox News and the Fox broadcast channel.<br />The Walt Disney Company announced on Thursday it had reached a deal to acquire most of 21st Century Fox Inc., the Murdoch-owned company<br />that includes the storied movie and television studio, national cable networks like FX and National Geographic, 22 regional cable channels dedicated to sports and a 39 percent stake in Britain’s pay TV service, Sky.<br />“The Disney deal gives Lachlan a clear run to manage the remnants,” said Neil Chenoweth, an Australian financial journalist<br />and author of “Rupert Murdoch: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Media Wizard.”<br />A company insider who could only discuss ongoing deal negotiations anonymously said it was too early to know what roles the Murdoch sons would take on, and added<br />that James Murdoch could decide to strike out on his own.<br />The Disney deal would leave him without a seat at the Dolby Theater for the Academy Awards — a string of Fox Searchlight Pictures films including “Slumdog Millionaire,” “12 Years a Slave” and “Birdman” have won best picture Oscars —<br />but Mr. Murdoch would maintain his seat at the White House.
