The Real Life Billionaire who Inspired Succession

In 2011, the most influential media mogul entered a room in front of a British lawmakers to talk about a huge problem at his company. His company was practicing unethical tactics, such as spying on people’s phones to get private information. The phones they hacked included celebrities, murder victims, politicians, and even members of the British royal family. They had been doing it for a long time, but finally, they were caught.

 he media businessman would sit down and endure hours of questions from lawmakers. He would say it was the most embarrassing day of his life. The investigation would lead to some serious consequences. The company was closed down, meaning his title as director no longer existed, and all the employees equivalently lost their jobs.

But here’s the crazy part: In this middle of all this, someone from the audience suddenly jumps up, runs over to the media mogul, and throws a pie in his face.

Rupert Murdoch Attacked With Pie [0:00-0:02]

Rupert Murdoch Attacked With Pie [0:10-0:16]

Zoom in on Murdoch (sitting on the left) getting hit with pie and his wife in pink throwing a haymaker (in pink)

 This media mogul was Billionaire Rupert Murdoch, and while the pie to the face was meant to be funny, he would get the last laugh because he had just avoided a huge crime.

 Spying on phones was illegal on a number of occurrences so his company called News of the World would be closed down and it had been around for 168 years, but this was just a small business of the many businesses he owned.

 So when he left the hearing that day, he was actually happy because he had dodged a bullet.

 You see, it turns out that the pie to the face was emblematic of what had occurred. Sure, the loss of the company was embarrassing, but it was not that harmful to him.

 Instead of going to jail and losing everything, he still had the business News Corporation, which today is worth a whopping $11.5 Billion dollars.

Introduction to Rupert Murdoch

Today, Rupert Murdoch stands as a Billionaire with an estimated net worth of over $17 Billion dollars, making him one of the top 100 richest men in the world. That’s larger than Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, and Richard Branson, combined.

While many people envy him for his powerful hold on the world’s media, it’s likely because they want to be him. His most impressive feat is making those crazy magazines you see at the grocery store. You know, with all of the exaggerated headlines?

Rupert Murdoch transformed his father’s newspaper company he inherited at age 22 into arguably the most powerful media company in history.

Today, News Corp owns the likes of The Austrailian, The Sun, one of my favorites the Wall Street Journal, and Fox news. It is also responsible for some extremly popular franchises such as “The Simpsons”, NFL broadcasting, and movies like Avatarand the Titanic.

Some people also forget this, but Rupert Murdoch purchased Myspace in 2005 for $12 Billion dollars before finally selling it for $35 Million dollars 6 years later to Justin Timberlake. This was probably his biggest mistake.

But back to the story of how the most influential media mogul got a pie to the face in a senate committee hearing

Sacrificial Lamb

When Rupert Murdoch went to the hearing that day, he and his son would set the tone of the meeting with their opening statement. One in which, Murdoch would state that is “this is the most humble day of his life”

 Succession’s Logan Roy vs real life’s Rupert Murdoch | The Spinoff [0:22-0:32]

The closure of the world newspaper… This is the most humble day of my life.

But after that, the day turned into anything but humble. He avoided responsiility and accountability for his companies’ wrongoing. Instead the worst part was when he threw his son under the bus.

 Succession’s Logan Roy vs real life’s Rupert Murdoch | The Spinoff [1:15-1:30]

I never heard of him… I think my son can perhaps answer that in more detail. He was a lot closer to it.

Introduce Succession

It was such a monumental moment in Murdoch’s testimony. You see, by pushing the blame onto his son, he was able to make it appear that this was an isolated incident only at News of the World.

Even the Hit HBO Series Succession made their own depiction of the historical events with some slight modifications.

 Succession’s Logan Roy vs real life’s Rupert Murdoch | The Spinoff [0:58-1:04]

At that point, I Believe my son was across that operation.

 Succession’s Logan Roy vs real life’s Rupert Murdoch | The Spinoff [0:33-0:46]

Senators, when I read the…. Well that was the worst day of my life

Succession Plan

If you’ve watched Succession, you know it’s packed with drama, surprises, and betrayal. Many people don’t know this, but it also takes inspiration from Rupert Murdoch.

One of the central characters, Logan Roy, is a lot like Murdoch. He’s the big shot at a media company, getting old, and figuring out who should take over while chasing money and power.

He’s the big shot at a media company, getting old, and figuring out who should take over while chasing power and money.

Logan uses his influence to manipulate his kids, and it stirs up lots of emotions.

It’s a show full of unexpected twists, so you should definitely check it out. I won’t spoil Succession, but I’ll tell you what happened with Rupert Murdoch’s succession plan this year.

 While I won’t reveal any spoilers for Succession, I will be revealing the ending of the succession plan for Rupert Murdoch, which was released this year.

Rupert Murdoch’s Succession

Rupert Murdoch has had 6 children with 3 baby momma’s. But let’s just say, figuring out who’s going to take over his empire when he’s gone has been a bit of a mess.

Rupert really cares about his media company and its impact on people. That became clear when he used his son James as a sort of sacrificial pawn during a hearing in front of politicians.

 Now, you might be wondering if James, got the top job as a reward for taking the hit when the company was in trouble. Well, the fight among Rupert’s kids for control of the family business is pretty interesting, almost as entertaining as the Succession plot line.

 James had some impressive accolades to speak for his accomplishments. He held a number of senior positions in his father’s empire including head of the London-based newspaper arm and chairmen of satellite broadcaster BSkyB, but these were the positions he lost during the phone hacking scandal.

He would take over as chief executive of 21st Century Fox in 2015, but guess what? That would be sold to Disney in 2019.

 Feeling like he was cheated out of his role not once, but twice by his father, he made a silent vow to not return to working for his father. He would resign from News Corp over “editorial differences.”

Lachlan Murdoch

That cleared the path for Lachlan Murdoch, who joined the family company as an Executive Director in 1996, but things weren’t always smooth sailing for him, just like his brother James.

 In 2005, he left the family business and went back to Australia for a while. But then, about ten years later, he came back and took on some really big roles in two big companies: 21st Century Fox and News Corp. And guess what? He became the co-chairman there, alongside his dad.

 Oh, and one more thing – Lachlan and his dad had pretty similar political beliefs, so it made sense for him to lead the company.

What happens to Rupert Murdoch

All of this brings us to where we are at now.

Last month in September, Rupert Murdoch officially retired from his big business role. He handed over the reins to his son, Lachlan Murdoch.

Rupert had been dealing with health issues for a while. Over the recent years he had a bad fall, got really sick with COVID, had pneumonia twice, and has had some heart problems. So, he decided it was time to step back.

He has played a huge part of two companies, News Corp and Fox Corp. But now, he’s giving up his chairman duties. He also owned a big chunk of these companies, about 40% and 44% of them respectively.

Rupert told his employees that he’s still feeling okay, but he thinks it’s time for other people in the company to have more responsibility. And that is where Lachlan Murdoch will take over.

Murdoch seems like a suitable successor to Rupert, but it’s likely that people will always compare him to his father. To make a name for himself, he should focus on building his own legacy rather than trying to copy what Rupert did.

 Re-visiting the Committee Meeting

What is scary to think about is that Rupert Murdoch could have lost everything. The phone hacking scandal back in 2011 could have turned out quite different, causing him to lose all of his companies.

Re-visiting the committee meeting, Murdoch avoided a lot of accountability for what took place under him, and if it weren’t for his son taking the onus, we might be here telling a different version of the story.

After the hearings, more information would come out that would shed light on the scandal.

Later, we found out more stuff that showed Rupert tried to hide the truth. There were tapes where he didn’t seem sorry at all. He even said that bribing police officers was something lots of British media did, even though he had earlier said he didn’t know about it.

Closing out

To wrap it up, I wanted to mention that I’ve been a fan of the TV show “Succession” for a while, and I was curious to learn about Rupert Murdoch, who the show is inspired by.

It’ll be interesting to see how Lachlan is able to fill in as the new boss for Fox Corp and News Corp, so I will be keeping an eye on him to see how his businesses do.

Nonetheless, if you made it to the end of the segment please consider subscribing as we have loads of content coming out soon. Your engagement is greatly appreciated and until next time.