Plans for Elisabeth Murdoch to join News Corp. board on hold
The furor over Rupert Murdoch’s management of News Corp. continues to reverberate.
The mogul’s daughter, Elisabeth Murdoch, had been scheduled to join her father and two brothers on the board of News Corp. after selling her British television production company to News Corp. this year.
However, the company said Friday that those plans — announced in March by Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of the media conglomerate — had been put on hold.
“Elisabeth Murdoch suggested to the independent directors some weeks ago that she felt it would be inappropriate to include her nomination to the board of News Corp. at this year’s annual general meeting,” Viet Dinh, one of News Corp.’s independent directors, said in a statement distributed by News Corp.
“The independent directors agreed that the previously planned nomination should be delayed,” Dinh said.
During the last month, News Corp. has been reeling over disclosures that reporters working for its now defunct News of the World tabloid hacked into the cellphones of not only celebrities and members of the royal family, but also crime victims and fallen soldiers.
The company also shelved its $12-billion bid for Britain’s largest pay-TV provider.
Before the controversy erupted in Britain, investors in the U.S. had questioned News Corp.’s $675-million purchase of Elisabeth Murdoch’s company Shine Group.
This spring, the New York-based Amalgamated Bank sued News Corp. in a Delaware court, alleging that nepotism was rife within News Corp.
