IMAGINING THE WORST POSSIBLE ENDING FOR THE MURDOCH SUCCESSION STORY

Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman has written a long, gossipy story about Rupert Murdoch in old age and the possible future of Fox News. Murdoch wants to keep the company in the family after he's gone. His most right-wing son, Lachlan, is the heir apparent.

However:

Lachlan’s future will be decided by his siblings, all of whom sit on the board of the trust that controls the company through a special class of stock. According to sources briefed on the trust’s governance, Murdoch has four votes while Elisabeth, Lachlan, James, and Prudence, Murdoch’s daughter from his first marriage, each have one.... After Murdoch’s death, his votes will be distributed equally among the four eldest children....

Murdoch's son James, who's more liberal and reportedly doesn't speak to Lachlan, may be planning a coup with his sisters:

Two people close to James told me he is biding his time until he and his sisters can wrest control from Lachlan after Rupert is gone. “James, Liz, and Prudence will join forces and take over the company,” a former Fox executive said. Some think James would purge Fox News and transform the network into a center-right alternative to CNN. Others think James would opt to sell Fox News to a private equity firm just so he could be rid of a toxic asset.

And Lachlan might want to leave:

Then again, does Lachlan even want the throne? Several sources speculated the elder Murdoch son may be running the company out of filial duty. When his father is gone, he may prefer to live the good life in Sydney. “Lachlan goes to the rock climbing gym every day. I think he has kind of lost interest since James left, but he is still trying to impress his dad,” a person close to Lachlan told me.

Okay, here's a worst-case scenario: The other siblings outvote Lachlan, or Lachlan bails. A decision is made to sell Fox to the highest bidder. And that bidder is...

Why wouldn't that happen? Musk would love the attention, especially if he melodramatically offers far more money than the company is worth. I'm sure he enjoys Fox's content and would want to prevent Fox from becoming "a center-right alternative to CNN."

We all know that Musk is running Twitter incompetently, but he doesn't seem to know that. It's not as if he'll allow self-doubt to affect his decision-making. And he still has planty of money: Tesla stock had a rough 2022, but it's up 70% this year.

If Lachlan's siblings take charge, it's possible that they won't want to sell to Musk, especially James -- “James sees destroying Fox News as his mission in life,” Sherman is told by "a senior Fox staffer," and Fox in Musk's hands would be as bad as it is now or worse. But Musk might make the best offer, by far.

It's more likely that Lachlan really wants to run Fox -- other interviewees tell Sherman that he does -- in which case we're stuck with a Murdoch-run Fox for another few decades. But if that's not the case, I think the Musk scenario is plausible.