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indiantelevision.com Team
MUMBAI: After son James Murdoch, media baron Rupert Murdoch has resigned as director of his U.K. media group News International, NewsCorp Investments, and Times Newspaper Holdings, a move that has been described as corporate house cleaning process.
The BBC said that he has also resigned from boards of a number of subsidiaries in America, Australia and India, where it runs the Star TV network.
The move comes in the backdrop of News Corp?s announcement to separate the profitable film and television business from the publishing business, which has been a drag on the media conglomerates balance sheet.
News International, which publishes The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun newspapers, has become a headache for News Corp due to its exposure to the phone hacking scandal, which led to the closure of News of the World tabloid besides arrest of company official and millions of pounds in damages to the victims.
More than that, the scandal has besmirched the image of Murdoch?s and prevented News Corp from making a complete takeover of BSkyB in which it holds 39 per cent.
Incidentally, in February this year James Murdoch had to quit the the boards of News Corp?s newspaper companies as well as BSkyB board due to the scandal. The Junior Murdoch has since moved to US as deputy COO of News Corp.
"I wanted to let you know that Rupert Murdoch has resigned as director of a number of companies, including NI Group Limited, known to most of you as News International, and Times Newspapers Holdings Limited," News International head Tom Mockridge reportedly said in an email.
"As you may be aware, Rupert resigned from a number of UK boards, including News Group Newspapers and Times Newspapers Limited, some time ago. He has also stepped down from more than a dozen boards of companies with interests in the US, Australia and India."
The move has fuelled speculation that Murdoch is looking to sell off his UK publishing business in order to rid himself of the scandal menace.
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