Commenting on News Corp's decision to strip all foreign holders of its B shares of half of their voting rights, Professor Ajay Bhalla, an expert in family business from Cass Business School, said:
"News Corp's decision to shred the voting rights of all foreign holders of its B class shares is a pre-emptive strike aimed at preserving Murdoch family's ownership of its crown jewels. While the family will retain its voting rights at 39.7 per cent of the total, the biggest loser will be Prince Al Waleed bin Talal, whose voting rights will be halved from 7 per cent to 3.5 per cent. The pressure from the Leveson enquiry in UK is hardly abating and the forthcoming Department of Justice inquiry is likely to push voting B class shareholders into the spotlight and test their allegiance to the Murdoch family - a price which may not be worth paying for both the family and block holders, such as the Saudi Prince. This decision enables the family to distribute the voting rights and avoid any sense of collusion while working on forming new alliances with B class shareholders during these testing times."
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Cass Business School Comment: News Corp
Date 19/04/2012