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What is the ownership percentage of the Murdoch family in Fox Corporation as of 2025?
Executive summary
Available reporting in mid–2025 consistently describes the Murdoch family trust as controlling roughly 39–40% of Fox Corporation’s voting stock, and that control was preserved through trust structures and legal actions before a September 2025 settlement reshaped who benefits from that control (reports cite about a 40% voting stake) [1] [2] [3]. Later September 2025 coverage documents a family deal that reallocates voting control to a new trust benefiting Lachlan (and two younger siblings) and pays out three other children — but the exact post‑deal numerical ownership percentage of the family in Fox Corp is not stated explicitly in the sources provided [4] [5] [6].
1. What the public record says about the family’s percentage stake (pre‑settlement)
Multiple mid‑2025 summaries and background pieces describe the Murdoch family trust as holding about 39–40% of Fox’s voting shares, a figure that is widely repeated in commercially oriented explainers and “who owns Fox” articles [1] [2]. These accounts emphasize that the family’s control rests on a trust and on Fox’s dual‑class share structure, not on outright majority ownership by individual family members [1] [2].
2. How that stake translated into control before the September 2025 deal
Reporting makes clear that the roughly 40% stake in voting stock was sufficient, when combined with trust arrangements and internal voting agreements, to give the Murdoch family decisive control over corporate governance — even though institutional investors and public float hold the rest of the economic interest [1] [2]. The New York Times and related coverage describe attempts by Rupert Murdoch to alter trust terms to enhance Lachlan’s voting position; court disputes in 2024–2025 revolved around preserving or changing that effective control [7] [8].
3. The September 2025 settlement: what changed in control — and what remains unclear
Several outlets report that on Sept. 8–9, 2025 the family reached a settlement creating new trusts that will vest voting control in Lachlan Murdoch (and include two younger children), while the three other siblings would be paid out and sell their personal holdings [4] [5] [6]. Fox’s PR release says voting control over Fox and News Corp shares owned by LGC Holdco will rest “solely with Lachlan Murdoch through his appointed managing director” for the term of the trust, but the release and contemporaneous press stories do not publish a single consolidated percentage figure for the family’s ownership after the transactions [6] [4].
4. Numbers reported about the transaction proceeds and stock sold
News accounts quantify parts of the deal: roughly 16.9 million Fox Class B shares and about 14.2 million News Corp Class B shares were to be sold by departing beneficiaries, raising about $1.37 billion at a discount in the Reuters account; three departing siblings were each expected to receive roughly $1.1 billion in proceeds, per Reuters and other reporting [4] [5]. Those share counts and cash figures describe who was paid and what was sold, but the sources do not convert those sales into a clear post‑deal family ownership percentage of Fox Corporation [5] [4].
5. Conflicting or secondary sources and their reliability
Commercial “who owns Fox” explainers repeated the ~39.6% or “about 40%” figure in mid‑2025 [1] [2]. These sites echo mainstream reporting but are not primary filings. Primary statements from Fox’s PR and reporting by Reuters, NYT, CNBC, NPR and Axios describe the transaction structure and governance outcome but omit an explicit post‑deal percentage ownership number [6] [5] [8] [4] [9] [3].
6. What we can and cannot say, given the sources
Available sources show the family trust controlled about 39–40% of Fox’s voting stock in mid‑2025 and that a September 2025 deal consolidated voting control under Lachlan while cashing out three siblings [1] [2] [4] [5] [6]. The sources do not provide a definitive, single percentage number for the Murdoch family’s ownership of Fox Corporation immediately after the September 2025 settlement; they describe share sales, cash payments and who will hold voting control but stop short of publishing the post‑transaction ownership percentage [6] [5] [4].
If you want a precise, auditable ownership percentage as of a specific 2025 date, you would need to consult Fox Corporation’s SEC filings (proxy statements, Form 10‑K/10‑Q, or a Form 8‑K describing the trust transactions) or the family trust filings referenced in the transaction disclosures — documents not included among the sources provided here (not found in current reporting).