Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, will leave her post as chairman of Shine Media when it merges with Endemol and Core Media,
the
Financial Times
reported.
Endemol and Core are controlled by Apollo Global Management, a private equity fund, the report noted.
Sophie Tucker Laing, former managing director of content at British Sky Broadcasting, will be CEO of the merged entity, the
FT
report said.
Elisabeth Murdoch founded Shine, a TV production company, in 2001. Her father's News Corp. (which has since split into two companies: News Corp. and 21st Century Fox) acquired it in 2011 for $673 million, and she received $214 million from the deal, the
FT
article said. Critics charged that News Corp. overpaid for Shine, and a group of institutional investors filed a class-action suit against the News Corp. board.
A subsequent
FT
article
noted that the suit was settled, and News Corp.'s insurers paid the company $139 million under its director and officer indemnity policy.
The
FT
noted that she was offered a seat on News Corp.'s board after the sale but declined it as the company was found to have participated in phone hacking. Elisabeth Murdoch clashed with her brother James, who headed News Corp.'s U.K. unit at the time the hacking took place. Her relationship with her father deteriorated as she spoke out against the hacking, the
FT
article said. The subsequent
FT
report said her husband, public relations executive Matthew Freud, also spoke negatively about the company, and tensions were reported between Freud and the Murdochs.
Elisabeth Murdoch's brothers James and Lachlan Murdoch have risen to top executive positions in her father's empire, the
FT
report noted. Lachlan is non-executive chairman of Fox and News Corp., and James is co-chief operating officer of Fox.
An unnamed family friend told the
FT
that the rift between Elisabeth and her family has started to heal. “One of the things that has enabled them to build good family relations is the fact they have no business dealings at all,” the friend said. (Source:
Financial Times
, Sept. 30, 2014 and Oct. 4-5, 2014.)
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