News Corp. Defeats Shareholder Push To Ditch Super Voting Stock Amid Succession Jitters

deadline.com:

News Corp. has defeated a shareholder proposal to adopt a recapitalization plan to eliminate News Corp’s dual-class capital structure that includes regular shares and super-voting share, most of which are owned by the Murdoch family.

At the annual meeting today, a majority of votes cast on the measure supported the company to leave the current share structure in place, against shareholder Starboard, which doesn’t believe control should passes from generation to generation, especially now as Rupert Murdoch and his children appear to disagree on who should inherit control the family business.

At issue is the fact that James, Elisabeth, Prudence and Lachlan Murdoch, who is the sole chair of News Corp. as well as CEO of Fox, would split control of the business equally under the terms of an irrevocable trust.

But they may not -– and indications are that they will not — agree on how to run the family business. That creates uncertainty, which “represents a risk to shareholders,” activist investor Starboard said in a September letter.