The legendary media mogul – and creator of Fox News Channel – is saying goodbye to a wide swath of the empire he built. (Tampa Bay Times)
It all started with a few glasses of wine and two media titans talking about how hard life is.
Rupert Murdoch, the 87-year-old founder and co-executive chairman of 21st Century Fox and News Corp., and Bob Iger, the 67-year-old chief executive of the Walt Disney Co., met last August at Murdoch’s Moraga vineyard in the Bel Air hills of Los Angeles and discussed the myriad challenges their multibillion-dollar corporations faced, according to two people familiar with the discussion.
Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google were dwarfing their old-media conglomerates. As much as Murdoch liked positioning himself as the underdog and outsider, these new digital competitors were turning out to be too much.
Not long after Iger drove away from that conversation (and after other meetings Murdoch and his sons held with Verizon and Comcast), the two men sketched out a deal that involves Murdoch selling the bulk of the company to Disney, but retaining a large stake in the combined entity. The proposed $70 billion agreement requires Iger to remain as CEO.
Aside from being the largest deal of his career, the transfer of power marks a seminal point for the aging Murdoch who is coming to terms with saying goodbye to his life’s work.
AAN Staff
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