Rupert Murdoch | |
---|---|
Born |
Keith Rupert Murdoch 11 March 1931 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
Citizenship |
Australian (1931–1985) American (naturalized 1985) |
Alma mater | Worcester College, Oxford (BA) |
Known for | Chairman and CEO of News Corporation (1979–2013) Executive Chairman of News Corp (2013–present) Chairman and CEO of 21st Century Fox (2013–2015) Executive Co-Chairman of 21st Century Fox (2015–present) Acting CEO of Fox News (2016–present) |
Net worth | US$11.7 billion (March 2016) |
Board member of |
News Corp 21st Century Fox |
Spouse(s) | Patricia Booker (m. 1956; div. 1967) Anna Torv (m. 1967; div.1999) Wendi Deng (m. 1999; div. 2013) Jerry Hall (m. 2016) |
Children |
Prudence (with Booker) Elisabeth (with Torv) Lachlan (with Torv) James (with Torv) Grace (with Deng) Chloe (with Deng) |
Parent(s) |
Keith Murdoch (father) Elisabeth Joy (mother) |
Relatives |
Ivan Murdoch (uncle) Patrick Murdoch (grandfather) Walter Murdoch (granduncle) Sarah O'Hare (daughter-in-law) |
Awards | Companion of the Order of Australia (1984) |
Notes | |
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Keith Rupert Murdoch /ˈmɜːrdɒk/,AC, KCSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-American media mogul. His father, Keith Arthur Murdoch, had been a reporter, editor and senior executive of the Herald and Weekly Times newspaper publishing company covering all Australian states except New South Wales. After his father's death in 1952 Keith Rupert Murdoch declined to join his late father's registered public company and created his own private company, News Limited. Murdoch thus had full control as Chairman and CEO of global media holding company News Corporation, now the world's second-largest media conglomerate, and its successors, News Corp and 21st Century Fox, after the conglomerate split on 28 June 2013.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Murdoch acquired a number of newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World, followed closely by The Sun. Murdoch moved to New York City in 1974, to expand into the U.S. market; however, he retained interests in Australia and Britain. In 1981, Murdoch bought The Times, his first British broadsheet, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen (and as a result, gave up Australian citizenship) in 1985 to satisfy the legal requirement for U.S. television ownership.
In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, Murdoch consolidated his UK printing operations in Wapping, causing bitter industrial disputes. Murdoch's News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989), and The Wall Street Journal (2007). Murdoch formed the British broadcaster BSkyB in 1990, and during the 1990s expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000, Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries, with a net worth of over $5 billion.