Starboard Value Issues Letter to News Corp Shareholders Regarding a Proposal to Eliminate the Company’s Dual-Class Share Structure at the 2024 Annual Meeting
Starboard Value LP (together with its affiliates, “Starboard” or “we”), a significant shareholder of News Corporation (Nasdaq: NWSA, NWS) (“News Corp” or the “Company”), today released the below letter sent to News Corp shareholders. A copy of the letter can be reviewed below or downloaded at: https://www.starboardvalue.com/presentations.
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September 9, 2024
Dear Fellow Shareholders,
Starboard Value LP (together with its affiliates, “Starboard” or “we”) is a large shareholder of News Corporation (“News Corp” or the “Company”). We have great respect for News Corp and the evolution of the business since its formation in 2013. News Corp has transformed itself from a business comprised primarily of newspaper assets in decline to a growing, digital-first, highly-recurring, subscription-oriented business. As we outlined last year at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit, we believe News Corp has an opportunity for significant shareholder value creation. Since that time, we have enjoyed discussions with our fellow shareholders, who share our concerns that the Company is significantly undervalued and is burdened by its dual-class share structure that provides outsized influence to the Murdoch family.
To be clear, we believe dual-class share structures are NOT in the best interests of shareholders and are NOT reflective of best-in-class corporate governance practices. That being said, we can understand that there are limited and unique circumstances where some may consider the structure to be beneficial. Theoretically, some may believe dual-class share structures could provide potential benefits to recently listed companies that, perhaps, want their visionary founder to be insulated against short-term pressures for a limited period of time. However, News Corp could not be further from this archetype.
News Corp and its predecessor and related companies have had dual-class share structures in place for decades under the leadership of founder Rupert Murdoch. However, at last year’s annual meeting, Rupert Murdoch transitioned to Chairman Emeritus and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, became the sole Chair of News Corp. As noted above, while we can understand how some could see a benefit to a visionary founder retaining outsized control for a limited duration of time, that potential understanding vanishes as super-voting power and the associated protections transition to others.