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Three Murdoch siblings to receive $1.1 billion each from

stock

sale

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Lachlan, Grace, and Chloe Murdoch benefit from new family

trust

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New Murdoch trust valued at $3.3 billion, source says

By Dawn Chmielewski

Sept 8 (Reuters) - The Murdoch family has reached a deal

that will see Rupert Murdoch's politically conservative eldest

son Lachlan Murdoch cement control of the family media empire

which includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.

The agreement, announced on Monday, ends a family brawl over who

will control one of the highest-profile global media groups and

puts to rest questions of succession within the Murdoch family

after its patriarch's death. The drama is considered to be one

of the inspirations for the television series "Succession,"

about the infighting of the members of a media dynasty. Its

real-life resolution preserves the conservative tilt of

Murdoch's media outlets.

Under the deal, Rupert's children James Murdoch, Elisabeth

Murdoch and Prudence MacLeod will receive cash from the sale of

about 16.9 million shares of Fox Class B voting stock and about

14.2 million shares of News Corp's ( NWSA ) Class B common stock. The

amount of the payment was not disclosed.

One source said each of the children is expected to receive

about $1.1 billion in proceeds.

They agreed to sell their personal holdings in Fox and News

Corp ( NWSA ) over a period of six months, according to the announcement.

A new family trust will be created to benefit Lachlan Murdoch,

and his younger siblings, Grace and Chloe Murdoch, who are

Rupert Murdoch's children from his marriage to Wendi Deng

Murdoch. This trust, worth about $3.3 billion, according to the

source, will hold 36% of Fox's Class B common stock and 33% of

News Corp's ( NWSA ) Class B shares, according to the companies'

statements.

A battle over Rupert Murdoch's global television and

publishing empire played out last autumn in a Reno, Nevada,

courtroom, where a judge considered the contentious matter of

succession.

Murdoch, 94, attempted to change the terms of the family's

trust, which was set up after Rupert Murdoch's 1999 divorce from

his second wife, Anna, and holds significant stakes in Fox News

parent Fox and Wall Street Journal owner News Corp. ( NWSA ) Under the

original trust, News Corp ( NWSA ) and Fox voting shares would have been

transferred to his four oldest children - Prudence, Elisabeth,

Lachlan and James - upon Rupert Murdoch's death.

Murdoch worried that three of his heirs, James, Elisabeth

and Prudence, could mount a coup to oust Lachlan, who serves as

executive chairman of Fox and chairman of News Corp. ( NWSA ) The

paterfamilias

proposed an

amendment

to the trust that would block any interference by Lachlan's

siblings, who are more politically moderate,

according to the New York Times, which obtained a sealed

court document detailing the succession drama.

A Reno, Nevada, probate court rejected that plan in

December, saying that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch had acted in

"bad faith" in seeking to amend the irrevocable trust. That

decision created a fresh opening for settlement talks, according

to the source.

"It almost certainly means this chapter of the drama is

over," said Brian Wieser, media analyst at advisory firm Madison

& Wall, though the settlement was unlikely to have any impact on

the business as Lachlan Murdoch has already been running for

years.