There aren’t many individuals on the earth over 90 years previous who’re nonetheless wielding energy, particularly after the departure of Warren Buffett’s long-term offsider Charlie Munger on the age of 99 on Tuesday and yesterday’s loss of life of Henry Kissinger on the age of 100.
Even Rupert Murdoch, 92, lastly gave a nod to the passing of time when he retired as govt chairman of each Fox Corp and Information Corp final month, leaving 93-year-old Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett because the oldest main public firm chair remaining.
With Rupert exiting, the oldest remaining chairs of main ASX-listed firms are billionaires Gerry Harvey (84) and Kerry Stokes (83), who nonetheless lead and management Harvey Norman and Seven West Media respectively.
Nevertheless, Rupert’s public appearances will not be executed simply but.
After a 19-minute farewell on the Information Corp AGM on November 16 and a remaining Fox Corp AGM on November 18 that lasted solely half-hour, Rupert will reportedly be dealing with a much more arduous two-day task in Los Angeles subsequent week when he’ll be cross-examined as a part of Smartmatic’s $US2.7 billion defamation case over the stolen election lies advised on Fox Information after the 2020 US election.
As was defined in this Crikey piece on November 10, Rupert pulls out all stops to keep away from being critically or extensively questioned at his AGMs, so the thought of a two-day cross-examination by aggressive attorneys received’t be filling him with pleasure.
Fox Corp’s determination to settle an earlier case by voting machine firm Dominion for $US787.5 million was reportedly partially influenced by Rupert’s poor efficiency in non-public depositions, which contributed to him being scheduled to be referred to as as a witness within the opening days of the Dominion trial.
With actually lots of of media retailers lining as much as cowl the trial and logistics being labored by way of on find out how to get Rupert out and in of the courtroom, Fox Corp folded and wrote out the most important defamation settlement cheque the world has ever seen.
Rupert sounded previous and frail at his farewell Information Corp AGM, not somebody who might maintain an in depth cross-examination. He was ready to chair Information Corp’s totally digital AGM nevertheless it was an audio-only affair. And when shareholders have been invited to the Fox Studios lot in Los Angeles two days later for the Fox Corp assembly, Rupert sat within the entrance row with out saying a phrase. There was no shuffling as much as the stage in entrance of mum and pop shareholders.
Surprisingly, Murdoch media retailers didn’t produce a competition of post-AGM farewell tributes for 92-year-old Rupert, with the most substantial protection of his remaining AGMs coming from Lachlan Murdoch’s biographer Paddy Manning in The Saturday Paper, backed up by this version of the 7am podcast.
In contrast to at his AGMs, Rupert received’t have the ability to get away with dismissive temporary solutions when dealing with the Smartmatic attorneys and he received’t have a administration flunkey who can intervene and blatantly censor questions.
That’s exactly what occurred on the Information Corp AGM. This primary written query that I submitted by way of the net platform was fully ignored:
Why was Tony Abbott appointed to the Fox Corp board quite than the Information Corp board on condition that Fox has no working property in Australia, the market he is aware of greatest?
The second query rolled out as follows:
Congratulations to Rupert on his superb 70-year journey. What are your favorite Information Corp reminiscences and do you’ve any regrets?
“Ah, thanks. I’ve only a few regrets, thanks,” was the very best Rupert might give you. Hearken to audio of the trade through Twitter.
The ultimate query was quite simple: “Will Rupert be paid as chairman emeritus?”
Rupert stated “A easy no”, after which CEO Robert Thomson piped up that he may need some bills reimbursed. Hearken to that trade through Twitter.
Seeing as we’re coping with defamation claims associated to voting machines, we must always cowl the voting outcomes on the two Murdoch-controlled AGMs.
The Information Corp voting outcomes confirmed that new govt chair Lachlan Murdoch suffered the second largest protest vote of all the administrators, albeit with a nonetheless wholesome 86.7% in favour, greater than half of which got here from his family’s gerrymandered 40%+ voting bloc.
It was an analogous story at Fox Corp, the place Lachlan suffered a 15.5% protest vote after 32.4 million shares have been voted in opposition to him, the second highest protest after former Republican home speaker Paul Ryan, who was opposed by 53.4 million voting shares.
If Fox Corp finally ends up making one other $1 billion-plus settlement with Smartmatic, these protest votes could be anticipated to rise once more subsequent 12 months, though shareholders can now not ship a message to the person most liable for the mess as a result of Rupert Murdoch is now not submitting himself to the annual election cycle.
As Joe Biden turned 81 on November 20, it’s comprehensible that Rupert has bailed out. It could hardly be credible for Fox Information to maintain hammering the US president over his age if their very own govt chairman was 93 going into subsequent November’s election.