Rupert Murdoch is considering whether to unite the two arms of his media empire – Fox Corp and News Corp – nearly a decade after the companies split.
Both companies confirmed last week that a “special committee” had been formed to explore a potential merger, adding that no final decision has been made.
Murdoch split his empire in 2013, placing the print business in News Corp and the TV and entertainment under 21st Century Fox.
The split shielded Fox’s entertainment assets from any potential financial fall-out from the phone hacking scandal that engulfed the media conglomerate’s News of the World newspaper in the UK.
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Fox Corp owns the Fox broadcast network, Fox News and Fox Sports, while News Corp. houses The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, News UK, the New York Post, Realtor.com, HarperCollins and the Australian pay-TV company FoxTel.
A merger would follow similar moves by Shari Redstone’s Viacom and CBS as US media outfits seek scale to compete with tech giants such as Apple and Amazon.
Both tech giants have begun bidding for sports, securing rights to stream major league baseball, soccer and football games.
Combining the two companies will also give the Murdoch family greater control over his media assets and help the companies trim costs.
The Murdoch family owns almost 40% of voting shares in News Corp and around 42% of shares in Fox Corp.
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