Fox Corporation

Fox Corporation (commonly referred to as Fox Corp or simply Fox) is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, with offices also in Burbank, California. Named after William Fox Incorporated in Delaware, it was formed as a spin-off of 21st Century Fox's television broadcasting, news, and sports assets on March 19, 2019. 21CF went defunct the next day. The company is controlled by the Murdoch family via a family trust with 39.6% ownership share, and by Rupert Murdoch himself to the effect of almost 40%. Rupert Murdoch is chairman emeritus, while his son Lachlan Murdoch is chairman and CEO.

Fox Corp deals primarily in the television broadcast, news, and sports broadcasting industries. Its assets include the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports, Tubi, Fox One and others. Murdoch's newspaper interests and other media assets are held by News Corp, which is also under his control and was split from News Corporation in 2013, alongside 21CF. On September 21, 2023, Rupert Murdoch announced that he was stepping down as the chairman of Fox Corp, effective November 2023.

History

Formation

On December 14, 2017, the Walt Disney Company announced its intent to acquire the motion picture, television production, cable entertainment, and direct broadcast satellite divisions of 21st Century Fox (the former News Corporation, which spun off its publishing assets in 2013), including 20th Century Fox and FX Networks, for $52.4 billion. The remainder of the company would form a so-called "New Fox", maintaining control of assets such as Fox's television network and broadcast stations (which Disney, already owning ABC, would be legally unable to own due to an FCC policy known as the "dual network rule", which prohibits mergers between the top broadcast networks), Fox News, the national operations of Fox Sports, and the 20th Century Fox studio lot, which would be leased to Disney for seven years. Fox's regional sports networks were also included in the sale, but were later divested by order of the Department of Justice, on the grounds that the Fox regional networks' combination with Disney's 80% ownership of ESPN would make Disney too dominant in the cable sports market.

In May 2018 it was confirmed that Lachlan Murdoch, rather than James Murdoch, would take charge of the New Fox company.

In mid-2018 NBCUniversal's parent company Comcast instigated bidding wars over both the Fox assets Disney planned to purchase, and the British broadcaster Sky plc (a company that 21st Century Fox held a stake in, and was planning to acquire the remainder). In July 2018, Fox agreed to an increase of Disney's offer to $71.3 billion to fend off Comcast's counter-bid. British regulators ordered that a blind auction be held for Sky's assets, which was won by Comcast.

On October 10, 2018, it was reported that in preparation for the impending completion of the sale, the new, post-merger organizational structure of "New Fox" would be implemented by January 1, 2019. On November 14, 2018, it was revealed that the new independent company will maintain the original Fox name. On January 7, 2019, Fox Corporation's registration statement was filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

On January 11, 2019, Fox stated in a securities filing that it had no plans to bid on its former regional sports networks; they would instead go to a consortium led by Sinclair Broadcast Group, with Fox Corp continuing to license the FSN name to those stations until Sinclair developed a new brand (the networks would eventually become Bally Sports). On March 12, 2019, Disney announced that the sale would be completed by March 20, 2019. On March 19, 2019, Fox Corp officially began trading on the S&P 500, replacing 21st Century Fox on the index. Republican politician and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan also joined Fox Corp's board at this time.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Disney would phase out the Fox brand usage by 2024 to avoid confusion with Fox Corp.

Operations

Fox Corp began operating separately on March 19, 2019. Chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch led a town hall meeting three days later, indicating that stock would be issued to the corporation's employees based on longevity.

In May 2019 via the Fox Sports division, Fox Corp acquired a 4.99% stake in Canadian online gambling operator The Stars Group for $236 million. As a result, it was also announced that the companies would co-develop sports betting products for the U.S. market under the branding Fox Bet.

In early July 2019, Fox Entertainment announced the formation of SideCar, with executives led by Gail Berman. SideCar was a content development unit for Fox and other outlets. In June 2020, SideCar was shut down by Fox.

In August 2019, Fox Corp acquired Credible Labs for $397 million and animation studio Bento Box Entertainment for $50 million. On April 20, 2020, Fox Corp acquired streaming service Tubi for $440 million. In September 2021, Fox Corp acquired TMZ from WarnerMedia in a deal worth about $50 million, with TMZ being operated under the Fox Entertainment division. In December 2021, Fox Corp acquired the film and television production studio MarVista Entertainment.

In September 2022, Fox Corp announced the launch of Fox Entertainment Studios. This is the company's first venture into entirely in-house television production. The studio debuted its first show, ''Monarch'', on September 11, 2022. Fox also announced that Fox Entertainment would re-enter the international distribution business by launching a sales unit called Fox Entertainment Global.

On October 14, 2022, it was announced that, under the instruction of Rupert Murdoch, a special committee had been established to explore a potential merger of Fox and News Corp, bringing the two companies back together since the former 21st Century Fox was spun-off from News Corp in 2013. Although Lachlan Murdoch supported his father in the proposal, James Murdoch opposed it, as did many shareholders. On January 24, 2023, the proposed merger was abandoned by Murdoch.

In April 2023, Fox announced it would be forming Tubi Media Group. This would be a standalone digital business unit, encompassing Tubi, Credible Labs, Blockchain Creative Labs, along with several other Fox digital sports, news and entertainment platforms and teams, in which Paul Cheesbrough was announced as CEO.

In September 2024 Rupert Murdoch applied to a Nevada probate court to remove voting rights from his children other than Lachlan, as set out in the irrevocable family trust. The other siblings, Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch, and James Murdoch, are more moderate politically than their father or brother, and Rupert was keen to keep the conservative political bias in his media outlets. On December 9, 2024, ''The New York Times'' reported that the court had ruled against the Murdochs, who, the probate commissioner wrote, had acted in bad faith when trying to change the trust.

In February 2025, Fox acquired the podcast and media company, Red Seat Ventures, in a move to expand Fox's reach into the podcast market. Red Seat Ventures would continue to operate as an independent company, and be placed under Tubi Media Group.

In May 2025, Fox announced plans to launch Fox One, a new U.S. streaming service targeting cord-cutters and cord-nevers, which will include the Fox broadcast network and the company's cable channels. It is expected to launch prior to the start of the 2025 NFL season.

Legal battle against Grupo Lauman (Fox Sports Mexico)

On March 4, 2025, Fox Sports Mexico announced through a statement that it had taken legal action against Fox Corporation and Grupo Pachuca because its alleged right of first refusal to offer to continue broadcasting the home matches of Club León and Club Pachuca in the Liga MX had not been respected, for which reason the channel asked a judge to order that these games remain without official broadcast through the streaming service Tubi (owned by Fox Corp.) until the matter is resolved. However, both Fox Corporation and Grupo Pachuca subsequently responded, clarifying that Grupo Lauman had not paid the corresponding amount for the television rights of both clubs, that Fox Corp.'s negotiation for these rights was therefore legal and that the games would continue to be streamed on Tubi. Furthermore, Fox Corp. indicated that Grupo Lauman's permit to use the Fox brand in Mexico had expired, and that it would therefore have to be phased out (Fox Sports later denied this last point). On March 21, it was reported that Fox Corporation had filed a civil lawsuit against Grupo Lauman in Los Angeles, California, claiming 850 million Mexican pesos (52 million US dollars) because, according to the lawsuit, Fox Corp. was the one who acquired the broadcast rights to the home games of Grupo Pachuca's teams in the Torneo Apertura 2024 and that the Mexican channel had obtained a sublicense to continue airing them during the course of the negotiations that the American company had with Grupo Lauman to acquire Fox Sports Mexico, of which the corresponding payment of MXN 221 million (13 million dollars) would not have been carried out by the Mexican company.

Assets

The company consists of the former 21st Century Fox's media and broadcasting properties that were owned by its predecessor, such as the Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox Sports Media Group.

See also

* Succession of Rupert Murdoch – a 2024 court case

References

External links

*

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News Corporation
2019 establishments in New York City
2010s in Manhattan
American companies established in 2019
Broadcasting companies of the United States
Companies based in Manhattan
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Corporate spin-offs
Mass media companies based in New York City
Mass media companies established in 2019
Publicly traded companies based in New York City