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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fearing, Greed, Q and A, where we ask

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Speaker 1: and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.

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Speaker 1: I'm Sean Alma and today, what does a five billion

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Speaker 1: dollar deal mean for the future of the Murdoch Empire.

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Speaker 1: Lachlan Murdock is set to control the family's global media assets,

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Speaker 1: including Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Australian, plenty more,

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Speaker 1: under a new deal that ends years of infighting and

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Speaker 1: speculation about what happens when Rupert Murdock passes away. The

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Speaker 1: agreement effectively sidelines Lachland's siblings James, Elizabeth and Prudence, though

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Speaker 1: they'll all walk away with about one point seven billion

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Speaker 1: Ozzie and While the new structure gives Lachlan and his

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Speaker 1: two half siblings, Chloe and Grace about thirty three percent

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Speaker 1: of News Corps voting shares thirty six percent of Fox,

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Speaker 1: it also means he's taking on a mountain of debt.

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Speaker 1: Tim Burrows is the publisher of media and marketing website

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Speaker 1: Umbrella and the newsletter Unmade, and co host of Media

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Speaker 1: Land on ABC Radio. Welcome back to Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 1: What do you reckon of the deal?

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Speaker 2: Sean and lovely to be with you. I have dreamed

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Speaker 2: of being the A in Q and A for so long,

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Speaker 2: so it's nice to finally have the opportunity. Yeah, look

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Speaker 2: at such a fascinating deal. I'm not sure any of

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Speaker 2: us necessarily saw it coming. You know, what had been

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Speaker 2: in the public domain was that there'd been this very

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Speaker 2: messy legal battle within the family, and that seemed to

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Speaker 2: set up a real question over the future of the Empires,

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Speaker 2: so the future of News Corp. And the future of

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Speaker 2: sister company, Fox Corp, which is what owns Fox News

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Speaker 2: in the US, amongst other things. And it really set

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Speaker 2: the question of whether Lachlan Murdoch, his father's choice, would

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Speaker 2: be able to retain leadership of the company, or whether

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Speaker 2: the other siblings would effectively gang together and outvote him

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Speaker 2: when Rupert Murdoch's shares votes were no longer valid once

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Speaker 2: he eventually passes away.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I mean there's a lot in that. Firstly, you know,

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Speaker 1: it must be quite a confronting to have this battle

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Speaker 1: about when you die, but Rupert Murdock seems to be

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Speaker 1: quite able to manage that one is that? I mean,

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Speaker 1: can just take back to the Nevada court case, really,

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Speaker 1: which has really kicked this off. Is it effectively about

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Speaker 1: the fact that Rupert thinks for Fox to succeed and

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Speaker 1: News Corp to succeed, it needs to have a right

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Speaker 1: wing leaning and the only sibling or only child of

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Speaker 1: his that can do that is Lachlan. That's effectively his argument,

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Speaker 1: isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was exactly what his legal argument was, that

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Speaker 2: it would be in the financial interest of all of

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Speaker 2: the family for Lachland to leave the company because only

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Speaker 2: he would have the in Rupert's view, correct ideology to

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Speaker 2: leave the company in the direction it would need to

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Speaker 2: be to be profitable, Whereas the thinking was if it

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Speaker 2: was the direction of James Murdoch or one of the

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Speaker 2: two other siblings voting with him, then potentially would take

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Speaker 2: it to the century or you know, even further somewhere

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Speaker 2: towards the left, and that might just not be as

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Speaker 2: commercially successful. So that that was his unsuccessful argument in

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Speaker 2: the Nevada court, And of course the family had to

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Speaker 2: then go away and hash things out, and as these

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Speaker 2: things so often are, it was settled with an enormous

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Speaker 2: pile of money.

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Speaker 1: So what does it mean for the essets? What does

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Speaker 1: it mean for the local newspapers, for example, does it

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Speaker 1: mean anything for Aria? What does it mean for Fox.

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Speaker 2: In the short term? A little bit more certainty, so

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Speaker 2: there isn't this question mark of what will happen to

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Speaker 2: the organization afterwards. You know. Another possibility was even that

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Speaker 2: it could be could be broken up. I think it

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Speaker 2: probably opens the door again for conversations about merging or

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Speaker 2: rather remerging News Corp and Fox Corp, which which standards

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Speaker 2: two separate organizations with fairly common ownership and Lochlan Murdock

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Speaker 2: at the top of both. So we could potentially see

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Speaker 2: that happen now in terms of impact on Australia because

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Speaker 2: Fox Corp aren't really much of a presence here.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: They licensed Chubi to News Corp that does the ad sales,

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Speaker 2: which is the free ad supported TV streaming service, but

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Speaker 2: that's really the only Fox Corp property we see here.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, you know, we may well see those two

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Speaker 2: coming together. I'm intrigued what this might say about Nover

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Speaker 2: Entertainment in the future. So no Over Entertainment owned by

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Speaker 2: Lochlan Murdock in his own rights, and it's felt to

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Speaker 2: me like at some point it will be logical for

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Speaker 2: it to be folded in within the wider news corp empire.

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Speaker 2: But of course it made no sense at all for

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Speaker 2: Lachlan to do that while this dispute was going on,

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Speaker 2: because effectively could lose control of something he currently controls.

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Speaker 2: So now that's resolved, it potentially opens the door for

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Speaker 2: that and then then potentially, you know, that becomes an

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Speaker 2: interesting kind of chip on the negotiating board.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I mean the prudence Elizabeth James walk away with

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Speaker 1: one point one billion US according to New York Times

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Speaker 1: had their numbers. Lachlan walks away owning all the running

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Speaker 1: the group, but also with a huge amount of debt.

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Speaker 1: Now he is backing traditional media so he can repay

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Speaker 1: that debt. That's a pretty big gamble. It's a Murdox

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Speaker 1: size to gamble. There, I say.

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Speaker 2: I was about to say, like father, like son. That

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Speaker 2: was That was the story of the news corp empire

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Speaker 2: over many decades, was betting big by raising debt to

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Speaker 2: do the things that Rupert Murder wanted to do. And

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Speaker 2: we it does look rather like Lachlan has picked something

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Speaker 2: from the same playbook. Now, of course, there is always

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Speaker 2: a moment when the music stops and there are plenty

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Speaker 2: of people who you know have have done media takeovers

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Speaker 2: and loaded in too much debt, including famously Warwick Fairfax

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Speaker 2: at one point the Man who Couldn't Wait, who ended

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Speaker 2: up with so much debt that effectively the company was

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Speaker 2: brought down. So no guarantee of being able to get through.

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Speaker 2: But equally, you know this is a family which is well.

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Speaker 2: Rupert Murdoch has led the business for more than seventy years,

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Speaker 2: often with heavy debt levels, So yes, business as usual.

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Speaker 1: Do you think Rupert will just sort of fade away

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Speaker 1: and just going to retirement? Tim Burrows, Well, technically, obviously

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Speaker 1: he is in retirement. Although we certainly began to hear

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Speaker 1: the evidence that when when Donald Trump was threatening to

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Speaker 1: sue it was over there the Wall Street Times, Wall

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Speaker 1: Street Journal's coverage of his Epstein connections, it was still

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Speaker 1: Rupert Murdock that he called.

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Speaker 2: I noticed that this current deal runs through until twenty fifty,

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Speaker 2: so I mean maybe Boopert Murdock will still be alive

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Speaker 2: at one hundred and twenty. I wouldn't actually bet against it,

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Speaker 2: So we shall see.

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Speaker 1: Tim. Thank you for talking to fear and greed, Q

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Speaker 1: and A.

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Speaker 2: Always a pleasure, are never mature.

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Speaker 1: Tim Burrows is the publisher of media and marketing website

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Speaker 1: Umbrella and the newsletter Unmade, co host of media Land

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Speaker 1: on ABC Radio, and a great man as well. If

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Speaker 1: you've got a question you'd like us to explore, send

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Speaker 1: it through on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or at biringreed dot com.

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Speaker 1: I'm Sean Almer and this is Beer and Greed Q

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Speaker 1: and a