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Keith Rupert Murdoch is an American media mogul who was born in Australia and has a net worth of $24.1 billion. He operates hundreds of local, global, and foreign publishing outlets around the world through his company News Corp, including The Sun and The Times in the United Kingdom, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Australian in Australia, and The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times in the United States. The media programming outlets Sky News Australia and Fox News, as well as the book publisher HarperCollins (through the Fox Corporation). He also owned Sky (until 2018), 21st Century Fox (until 2019), and the now-defunct News of the World (until 2018).
Keith Rupert Murdoch, the son of Sir Keith Murdoch and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. His ancestors are English, Irish, and Scottish. Murdoch was born in Melbourne, as were his parents. Janet Calvert-Jones, Anne Kantor, and Helen Handbury were Rupert Murdoch's three sisters. He went to Geelong Grammar School, where he was co-editor of The Corian, the school's official newspaper, and editor of If Revived, the student journal. He led the cricket team at his school to the National Junior Finals. His father taught him to take over the family business while he worked part-time at the Melbourne Herald. Murdoch studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Worcester College in Oxford, England, where he was known as "Red Rupert" for holding a bust of Lenin in his room. He was a member of the Oxford University Labour Party, ran for Secretary of the Labour Club, and controlled Cherwell's publishing company, Oxford Student Publications Limited.
Keith was a war correspondent who went on to become a regional newspaper magnate with two newspapers in Adelaide, South Australia, a radio station in a remote mining area, and the chairman of the influential Herald and Weekly Times publishing group. Keith Rupert went by his second name, the first name of his maternal grandfather, later in life.
Murdoch took over the running of The News, a small Adelaide newspaper owned by his father after his father died in 1952. Murdoch purchased a number of newspapers in Australia and New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s before moving into the United Kingdom in 1969, acquiring the News of the World and The Sun. Murdoch moved to New York City in 1974 to expand his company in the United States, but he maintained his interests in Australia and the United Kingdom. Murdoch purchased The Times, his first British broadsheet, in 1981 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1985, giving up his Australian citizenship, to meet the legal criteria for owning a U.S. television network.
Murdoch consolidated his UK printing operations in London in 1986, eager to embrace newer electronic publishing technology, resulting in bitter labor disputes. Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989), and The Wall Street Journal were all purchased by his holding company News Agency (2007). Murdoch founded BSkyB, a British broadcaster, in 1990 and expanded into Asian networks and South American television during the 1990s. Murdoch's News Corporation, which had a net worth of over $5 billion in 2000, owned over 800 businesses in more than 50 countries.
Disney paid $71 billion to buy 21st Century Fox in 2019. Rupert had a 17 percent interest in Fox at the time, and when the dust settled, he had around $12 billion in Disney stock. His children have profited handsomely from the contract. Rupert's six children received an extra $10 billion from the deal. Rupert also became a 39 percent owner of the newly formed Fox Corporation as a result of the transaction. The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Fox News, Fox Broadcast Network, and The Times of London are among the prominent subsidiaries of this media conglomerate. His 39 percent interest is expected to be worth $4 billion by 2020.
Murdoch has been married four times. Jerry Hall, a former model whom he married in 2016, is his most recent and current wife. Rupert Murdoch has six children, all of whom have gone on to have successful careers in Murdoch's various business ventures.
Rupert Murdoch's son, James Murdoch, was confirmed to have purchased a $30 million Beverly Hills home in 2015. The home is 8,651 square feet in size and has 11 bedrooms. He had previously listed the home for $35 million on the open market before selling it to his son for $5 million less. The house was designed in the 1920s, and James was quoted as saying that he wanted to keep the house's historical value in mind as he planned renovations.
He currently lives in a Bel-Air mansion worth around $28.8 million. He also owns a $57 million apartment in New York, as well as other real estate properties around the world.
SOURCES : Forbes, Celebrity Net Worth, International Business Times
This article was updated on March 18, 2021 by Vanessa Shumbanhete
Earnings & Financial Data
Date |
Category |
Description |
Amount |
---|---|---|---|
2020 |
Royalties |
39% stake in the Fox Corporation. |
$4,200,000,000 |
2019 |
Sale of Asset |
He sells his movie studios and stake to Disney |
$71,000,000,000 |
2015 |
Sale of Asset |
Sold Beverly Hills home to his son |
$30,000,000 |
2014 |
Asset |
Purchase of housing units |
$12,800,000 |
2012 |
Asset |
The value of Murdoch's Toyota Lexus GS450H |
$54,000 |
2012 |
Salary |
Compensation in 2013 |
$28,900,000 |
2012 |
Asset |
Amount paid for the purchase of the winery in the hills above Bel-Air |
$28,800,000 |
2011 |
Salary |
Total compensation in 2012 |
$30,000,000 |
2011 |
Sale of Asset |
Amount earned by News Corporation from the sale of MySpace |
$30,000,000 |
2010 |
Salary |
Total compensation in 2011 |
$33,300,000 |
2010 |
Asset |
Amount paid for the purchase of a condo in NYC |
$57,300,000 |
2009 |
Earning Turned Donation |
Amount donated by News Corporation to Republican Governors Association |
$1,000,000 |
2009 |
Earning Turned Donation |
Amount donated by News Corporation to U.S. Chamber of Commerce. |
$1,000,000 |
2008 |
Asset |
The value of his Boeing 737 |
$62,000,000 |
2008 |
Asset |
The base value of Murdoch's Gulfstream 550 in 2009 |
$42,900,000 |
2007 |
Asset |
Amount paid for acquiring Dow Jones |
$5,000,000,000 |
2005 |
Asset |
Amount paid for acquiring IGN Corporation |
$650,000,000 |
2005 |
Asset |
Amout paid by News Corporation, where Murdoch served as founder, CEO and Chairment, as payment for the purchase of Intermix Media Inc., |
$580,000,000 |
2004 |
Asset |
The value of his apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue |
$44,000,000 |
2002 |
Asset |
Amount paid for acquiring 34 percent stake in Hughes Electronics |
$6,000,000,000 |
2002 |
Asset |
Amount paid for the purchase of his Rosehearty Mansion |
$10,500,000 |
1992 |
Asset |
Amount paid for the purchase of Star TV |
$1,000,000,000 |
1984 |
Asset |
Amount paid for Davis' stock in Fox |
$325,000,000 |
1984 |
Asset |
Marvin Davis sold Marc Rich's interest in 20th Century Fox to Murdoch for $250 million in March 1984 |
$250,000,000 |