Rupert Murdoch’s plan to combine News Corp. and Fox, recreating the conservative-leaning media goliath that he split apart nine years ago, is drawing mixed reactions on Wall Street.
The 91-year-old patriarch of the global media empire is seeking to reunite the parent of Fox News with that of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, the companies said on Friday. His family trust holds about 40% of the voting stock of each company, and recombining them would save corporate expenses and allow the bigger entity to more easily promote new businesses, such as sports betting, across multiple media outlets.
Several analysts said the potential recombination is unlikely to solve one of the key problems facing Fox and News Corp. — low valuations relative to their peers. Fox’s Class A shares fell 7%, the most intraday since March 2021, at 9:55 a.m. in New York. News Corp. rose 6.4%, the most since Aug. 9.