The merger of News Corp. and Fox faces opposition from major shareholders of both companies

A London investor in News Corp. and Fox Corp. Rupert Murdoch has reportedly spoken out against a possible reunification of the companies.

Independent Franchise Partners is one of the largest shareholders, along with the Murdoch family, with stakes in Fox and News Corp. of more than 7%. The companies confirmed a few weeks ago that they were officially considering a possible merger involving assets such as Fox News, the Fox broadcast network, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones under one roof.

IFP said it had one of News Corp. that he believes a combination would not realize the full value of both companies, a representative of the investment firm told Deadline. Instead, it recommended that any merger be done only in coordination with the sale of certain shares in News Corp. must be performed.

The message was first published by the protocol.

This is the second reference to shareholder discussions in recent days. Irenic Capital, which owns 2% of News Corp. Owned and took an activist role earlier this week, defying the poor advertising climate and legal liability associated with Dominion Voting Systems’ billion-dollar lawsuit against Fox News.

News Corp. and Fox both declined to comment.

The Murdoch family controls approximately 40% of the voting rights of both companies. Fox Corp. emerged from a $71.3 billion deal with Disney in 2019 as a smaller, more television-focused company. In this transaction, Disney acquired most of its predecessor, 21st Century Fox. Currently, Fox Corp’s key holdings include its flagship broadcast network Fox Sports, Fox News, a portfolio of local TV stations and streaming service Tubi. Although it has produced good results and avoided depleting subscription streaming resources, Fox is not as large as many of its peers, and some Wall Street analysts have questioned its prospects at its current size given the current pressure on TV advertising and the company equipment cut cables.