Murdoch may step down as head of News Corp.
Falling stock market shares, pressure from analysts, and police raids undermine the resistance of the Australian media mogul.
247 - Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch is seriously considering stepping down from his executive role at the helm of the News Corp. communications conglomerate, the holding company that controls 55 newspapers, 40 magazines, and titles such as The Wall Street Journal and the American television network Fox. The company's shares are plummeting on stock exchanges in England and the United States, with losses of 13% in recent days. Today, prices opened again sharply lower, by more than 2%. "Rupert should leave because it's in everyone's interest that he leaves," broker Terry Smith of Tullet Preson, based in New York, told Bloomberg. "Without him, the 'Murdoch discount' effect disappears and the shares tend to rise again," corroborated Don Yacktman, a fund manager for major investors. In England, market analyst Michael Morris told Bloomberg that Murdoch's leadership style, based on personalism, has been seriously damaged by the phone hacking scandal. "Investors are concerned that he will make decisions that are not consistent with the interests of shareholders," he assessed.
The pressure from falling stock prices and unanimous criticism from analysts is already shaking the defenses of Murdoch himself, who is 80 years old. The blows from the justice system, which ordered the arrest of his right-hand woman Rebekah Brooks, are leaving him isolated. "News Corp. is not Rupert Murdoch," Murdoch himself said in an internal memo to company employees the day before yesterday. "News Corp. is the collective creativity and effort of thousands of people around the world," he continued.
The message was interpreted as Murdoch preparing an exit strategy for himself. International media are already speculating that his replacement at the corporation will be the company's current interim CEO in England, Chase Carey. Murdoch would step down from executive leadership to become chairman of the holding company's board of directors. Tomorrow, he and his son James will testify before the British Parliament regarding the wiretapping carried out by the staff of the News of the World newspaper, which closed on Sunday the 10th. The announcement of the businessman's retirement seems poised to be made at any moment.