Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch are considering a remeger of Fox Corp. and News Corp., a combination that would reunite the family’s television and publishing businesses and tighten their hold on what remains of the media empire, newly unsealed Nevada court records show. The discussions surfaced in documents and testimony unsealed in recent weeks from the family’s 2023–25 succession fight.
Reuters reports Probate Commissioner Edmund Gorman released findings at the end of July. An attorney for Lachlan argued in a June hearing that merger-related material should stay sealed or redacted because a deal “still could happen in the future.”
Court files show Rupert, then chairman of both companies, revived the idea of putting them back together in 2022, less than a decade after he split them. He drafted a letter telling both boards that the family trust would not “vote in favor of any alternative sale, merger or similar transaction involving either company.”
A combined company would bring together Fox News, the Fox broadcast network (including NFL games), The Wall Street Journal, The Sun and the New York Post.
In June, Fox, led by Lachlan, agreed to buy streaming platform Roku for about $22 billion to reach more than 100 million households as traditional TV shrinks. That deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027.
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| Rupert Murdoch |
After a representative for his daughter Elisabeth questioned the plan, he texted her that he would “ram it through … if necessary.” Investors balked and the 2022 effort died. Murdoch split the companies in 2013 after a U.K. phone-hacking scandal, including the hacking of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone. He separated the faster-growing television assets from the newspaper business; investors then lifted the value of both.
The family battle that produced the new filings began in December 2023, when Rupert, then 93, tried to rewrite the family trust so Lachlan would control Fox and News Corp. and three other children — Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch — would be sidelined.
The siblings sued. They settled in 2025: Lachlan became the designated heir; each of the three received about $1.1 billion and left the trust that controls the companies.
The New York Times Magazine first reported the dispute last year; the July Nevada findings added fresh remarks from Rupert. When a family representative challenged his push to concentrate control, Rupert replied: “Sorry, Richard! This has been a family-dominated business for 70 years,” and said it would be “a disaster for at least the U.S. and Australia if these assets fell into the wrong hands.”
News organizations including Reuters petitioned the court to unseal the record.