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News Corp. suspends voting rights of some Class B shares

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News Corp.’s board of directors temporarily suspended the voting rights of a portion of shares held by non-U.S. citizens to comply with U.S. law, according to a regulatory filing.

The media conglomerate Wednesday suspended the half of the voting rights of foreign citizens who hold Class B shares in News Corp. The company said its board took the action to comply with U.S. law, which limits foreign ownership of broadcast licenses to no more than 25%.

The decision would affect Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz, who holds more than 56 million Class B shares.

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News Corp.’s 27 owned and operated television stations and Fox Broadcasting Co. are lucrative assets, together generating $4.8 billion in revenue and $681 million in operating profit in 2011.

The board determined that about 36% of the company’s Class B stock was held by non-U.S. shareholders, and immediately suspended the voting rights of 50% of this class of stock held by foreigners.

As part of the announcement, Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch and the family trust — which hold nearly 318 million shares of Class B stock — agreed to cap their voting power. The Australian-born Murdoch became a U.S. citizen in 1985 to comply with the foreign-ownership restrictions on U.S. broadcast licenses.

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“The suspension of voting rights will remain in place for as long as the company deems it necessary to maintain compliance with U.S. laws,” the company said in a statement.

dawn.chmielewski@latimes.com

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