Saturday, 22 October 2011

News Corp shareholders confront Murdoch aap

News Corp shareholders confront Murdoch

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On Saturday 22 October 2011, 14:49 EST
Angry shareholders and placard-waving protesters confronted Rupert Murdoch, his sons Lachlan and James, and other board members of his global media conglomerate News Corp at the company's annual general meeting in Los Angeles.
Mr Murdoch usually holds the AGM at swanky hotels in New York, but after the revelation in July that his UK tabloid The News Of the World was involved in widespread phone hacking and the firestorm of criticism that followed, the 80-year-old mogul on Friday retreated behind the high walls of his Los Angeles movie studio, Twentieth Century Fox.
Shareholders and media members were escorted into the studio via a side exit in mini-buses, avoiding the protesters who clogged the main entrance.
"Good morning, everyone. Welcome. I am Rupert Murdoch," the News Corp chairman and chief executive announced to the audience of about 100 or so people inside the studio's Zanuck Theatre.
It did not take long for shareholders to take Mr Murdoch, his board members and senior executives to task over the hacking scandal, Mr Murdoch's $US33.29 million pay for the 2010/11 financial year and calls for a "truly independent" News Corp board.
Among the critics were Catholic priest Seamus Finn, of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which holds about 15,000 News Corp shares. Father Finn told Mr Murdoch a company's culture "is set by the leadership".
"Are you suggesting I am a bad person?" Mr Murdoch asked the priest.
"No, I'm not," Father Finn replied.
A move by institutional investors to replace Mr Murdoch with an independent chairman was unsuccessful, according to voting results released a few hours after the meeting.
A shareholder campaign to vote Mr Murdoch, his sons and other News Corp board members off the board also failed.
With the Murdoch family holding almost 40 per cent of News Corp's voting shares and an ally, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal with a 7 per cent stake, they had a good start on the way to gaining the 50.1 per cent needed for each director to survive.
Mr Murdoch, looking thin, began the AGM with a contrite and apologetic tone but at times was at his feisty best.
"You can't keep getting up," Mr Murdoch said when he spotted Australian Shareholders Association representative Stephen Mayne return to the microphone for a follow-up question.
It was announced before the meeting News Corp would pay the family of murdered British 13-year-old Milly Dowler STG2 million ($A3.11 million) in compensation. The News of the World hacked into the teenager's mobile phone messages.
Mr Murdoch has also donated STG1 million to six charities.
"I promise you, absolutely, we will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of this and get it right," Mr Murdoch told shareholders.
British MP Tom Watson flew from London to directly probe Mr Murdoch about the phone scandal, remarking it was "the deepest of irony" that a backdrop at the AGM featured a front-page photo from a News Corp paper of Prince William and Kate Middleton on their wedding day.
Mr Watson said both had been targeted by private investigators involved in the phone hacking scandal.
"There are corporate governance structures that can prevent this happening again," Mr Watson said.

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