CalPERS to vote against return of Murdochs to News Corp. board
The nation’s largest public pension fund said it would vote against the reelection of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, to News Corp.’s board of directors at the Oct. 21 annual shareholder meeting.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, said in a statement Friday that the media giant’s shareholders would benefit from greater board independence. Murdoch controls about 40% of News Corp.’s voting shares.
The announcement by CalPERS, the 22nd largest company shareholder with about 1.4 million voting shares, comes after influential advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services this week advised voting against the reelection of 13 of the company’s 15 directors, saying the damaging consequences of a British phone hacking scandal reflects a failure of board “stewardship.” Hermes Equity Ownership Services, an advisory service affiliated with Britain’s largest pension fund, made a similar recommendation Friday.
News Corp.’s board has recommended reelection of the Murdochs, and the company this week issued a statement saying the board has taken “decisive action” to hold people accountable and taken measures to “prevent something like this from ever occurring again.” The media conglomerate spans four continents, with newspaper, television, film and digital holdings.
