The new Fox Corp. is much smaller than its predecessor by almost any measure. Revenue and headcount have shrunk by almost two-thirds and the firm’s market value is about 75% smaller as it jettisoned multiple film and television studios.
But one thing hasn’t changed: Lachlan Murdoch’s paycheck.
The Fox CEO and heir to billionaire Rupert Murdoch has annual target compensation of $20 million — equal to what he received as executive chairman of 21st Century Fox Inc., regulatory filings show. Of that, $3 million is salary and the rest is composed of cash and equity bonuses tied to performance.
There are no rules for how, or if, executive compensation should be adjusted when a company emerges from a transaction as a far smaller entity. But boards tend to consider revenue and market capitalization, knowing that investors and proxy advisers scrutinize how a CEO’s pay stacks up against peers at similarly sized companies.
Still, $20 million doesn’t make Murdoch a standout in the U.S. media industry, whose executives consistently rank among the best-paid. For years, Leslie Moonves earned more than $50 million annually while running CBS Corp., and Discovery Inc.’s David Zaslav periodically receives massive grants of equity that propel his reported compensation above $100 million in those years.
Industry CEOs also tend to command the biggest salaries. Lachlan Murdoch’s $3 million puts him in the 98th percentile of S&P 500 chieftains, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Lachlan, 48, took over as head of the new company after his father sold much of the empire he’d built to Walt Disney Co. His younger brother James was CEO of the predecessor firm but left earlier this year with the $2 billion he got from the sale to start a family office, Lupa Systems, which invests in technology and media. Lachlan and sister Elisabeth Murdoch, who founded a Los Angeles-based startup that makes digital, short-form video series, also received $2 billion apiece.
The new firm will limit its focus, at least in the near term, to the domestic market for television news, sports and entertainment. That’s in contrast to the global interests of 21st Century Fox, which included India, the U.K. and a swath of international channels.
Rupert Murdoch, 88, has a net worth of $7.1 billion, with his Fox stake comprising almost half of it, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He shares the chairman role with Lachlan and has annual target compensation of $18 million. That’s down about 25% since before the Disney deal, thanks to a smaller salary and bonus.
Lachlan’s compensation for the year ended June 30 totaled $42.1 million, more than half of it from one-time retention grants and adjustments to earlier awards.
A Fox spokeswoman didn’t reply to an email seeking comment.
–With assistance from Brandon Kochkodin, Jenn Zhao and Tom Metcalf.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.
