News Corp. shareholders vote heavily against Rupert Murdoch's sons

[n2doc]

In a challenge to Rupert Murdoch’s family succession plans, more than one-third of votes cast by News Corp. shareholders were opposed to returning the media mogul's two sons, James and Lachlan, to the board.

The company's 80-year-old chairman and chief executive fared much better -- winning the backing of an overwhelming majority of the votes cast in Friday's election, according to a document filed late Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Rupert Murdoch collected 86% of the votes cast, although a sizable number of shareholders, representing 12 million votes, abstained. All the company's directors, including the three Murdochs, won a majority of the votes cast -- an outcome nearly assured because Murdoch and his family control 40% of the voting shares.

Still, shareholders signaled their unhappiness with the Murdoch family. The elder Murdoch has long indicated that he would like one of his children to succeed him in running the $33-billion-a-year media conglomerate, which owns the Fox television network, Fox News Channel, 20th Century Fox film studio, HarperCollins publishing and a stable of newspapers including the Wall Street Journal.

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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/10/news-corp-shareholders.html