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James Murdoch rejoins high-flying Sky as chairman
Posted On Jan 29 2016
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The move has fuelled rumours that Fox, where James Murdoch serves as chief executive, could be looking to buy the rest of Sky, the maker of programmes including Stan Lee’s Lucky Man and Stella.
The youngest son of News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch resigned from the same role four years ago in the midst of the phone hacking scandal.
The company announced Friday that Murdoch will succeed the current chairman, Nicholas Ferguson, when he steps down in April. Shore Capital analyst Roddy Davidson said James Murdoch’s return was likely to “rekindle speculation regarding 21st Century Fox’s plans for its 39 percent stake”.
He stepped down amid the massive phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World, a British tabloid newspaper that was part of the Murdoch empire.
Having returned to NY he rebuilt his career and in 2015 was named the chief executive of 21st Century Fox (FOXA.O), one of the most important media companies in the world.
Jeremy Darroch, group chief executive, said: “We’re delighted that James Murdoch has agreed to step into the role of chairman”.
The news came as Sky reported record half-year profits, crediting strong customer demand for TV and broadband services.
Sky has operations in five European markets including the UK, Germany, Ireland and Italy.
“We have had another very strong half as we continue to transform Sky, broadening our business and expanding into new markets and customer segments”, said Sky Group CEO Jeremy Darroch.
Over 337,000 new customers joined Sky in the second quarter and we sold 1.1 million extra paid-for products.
It was also announced that James Murdoch would become the chairman of Sky.
However, operating profit also slipped to GBP524 million from GBP536 million a year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP5.72 billion from GBP4.30 billion was offset by a big step-up in operating expenses to GBP5.19 billion from GBP3.77 billion, resulting from the costs of the company’s acquisition and integration Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia.
