NEWS CORP FACES POTENTIAL VOTING DEADLOCK AMONG MURDOCH'S HEIRS

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York 2008-11-28
News Corporation faces a potential “deadlock” once Rupert Murdoch's heirs take over, according to a biography of the 77-year-old media owner whose empire stretches from the Sun newspaper in London to Star TV in Asia.
An agreement giving equal economic rights in the Murdoch family's stake in the company to all six of its chairman's children – but voting control to the eldest four only – contains no provision for breaking tied votes, the book reports.
“A two-to-two vote means absolute deadlock in the affairs of one of the world's largest companies,” writes Michael Wolff, author of The Man Who Owns the News, which will be published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House, on December 2.
document.writeln("");

ADFHOST7318="http://ftchinese.allyes.com";
ADFCID7318=60;
ADFBID7318=7318;
ADFUSER7318="http://ftchinese.allyes.com/main/adfclick?user=FTCHINESEBusinessmpu&db=ftchinese&log=on&ip=218.103.103.86&bid=7318&cid=216080&sid=95775&kv=&exp1=-410499553&exp2=6610290897&cache=2482&url=http://ad.cn.doubleclick.net/clk;209146700;31141024;k?http://www.emirates.com/cn/chinese/destinations_offers/special_offers/discover_atlantis_the_palm/discover_atlantis_the_palm.aspx?cid=118274";
var flash_fl08110717232012=1;
var flash_wid08110717232012=300;
var flash_hei08110717232012=250;
var flash_adr08110717232012="http://www.ftchinese.com/ads/paid_ads/Emirates_300x250_081107.swf";
function alysxcf(u,w,h,p){if(!p)p=0;var d="xc"+Math.ceil(Math.random()*1000000);document.write("");
alysxc(u,w,h,p,d,ADFHOST7318,"719008110717232012",0,0,ADFUSER7318);}
alysxcf(flash_adr08110717232012,flash_wid08110717232012,flash_hei08110717232012);

He quotes Mr Murdoch saying that the arrangement could yet change, giving votes to Grace and Chloe, his young children by Wendi, his third wife, “when they are 25 or 30 or something”.
However, his older children and the family's lawyer told Mr Wolff that there was no such plan to renegotiate the trust that manages the 38 per cent stake.
A person close to the family told the Financial Times: “This is not a family that believes it needs legal deadlock provisions. They have always been very happy to rely on old-fashioned talking, arguing, shouting, threatening and ultimately compromise to reach consensus.”
The book stirs speculation about Mr Murdoch's likely successor following the 2005 decision by Lachlan, his eldest son, to step down from executive duties.
It highlights the central role played by James, the heir presumptive who runs News Corp's European and Asian operations, in News Corp's 2007 acquisition of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal.
However, it also quotes Mr Murdoch speculating that Elisabeth, his second daughter, could build Shine, her television production company, to a size where she could sell it to buy out one of her siblings.