PursuitsDeals
Murdoch Billionaires Multiply After Disney Closes Fox Deal
- His six children are poised to receive a total of $12 billion
- Fox and Disney expect to complete transaction in coming days
Walt Disney Co.’s $71 billion takeover of a swath of 21st Century Fox Inc.’s assets isn’t just remaking the media landscape. It’s reshaping the fortune of one of the industry’s most powerful dynasties.
Over more than half a century, Rupert Murdoch built a media empire, and he’s now worth $19.3 billion. But the $12 billion of proceeds from the Disney deal are set to be distributed to his six children -- Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, James, Grace Helen and Chloe. That will make them billionaires in their own right while cutting the elder Murdoch’s fortune to $7.3 billion, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Fox declined to comment.