Rupert Murdoch stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corporation

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is stepping down from his chairmanship role at Fox Corporation and News Corporation in November, the companies announced Thursday.

The 92-year-old Australian-born American will be appointed Chairman Emeritus of each company after an upcoming annual general meeting of shareholders, they said in a statement.

"On behalf of the FOX and News Corp boards of directors, leadership teams, and all the shareholders who have benefited from his hard work, I congratulate my father on his remarkable 70-year career," said Lachlan Murdoch, one of his sons, who will become chairman of both firms.

"We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted," he added.

Murdoch inherited a newspaper at 22 after his father died and entered the news business in the 1950s. He built his empire in the UK and later in the US before entering the television industry in the 1980s.

After launching the popular cable network Fox News Channel in 1996, he split Fox and News Corp. in 2013 but thought of reuniting the two companies before calling off a potential merger in January.

Some of Murdoch's media empire includes Fox News and Fox Business cable networks, and The Times of London, The Wall Street Journal and New York Post newspapers.

"For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change," he wrote in a farewell note to employees.

"Neither excessive pride nor false humility are admirable qualities. But I am truly proud of what we have achieved collectively through the decades, and I owe much to my colleagues, whose contributions to our success have sometimes been unseen outside the company but are deeply appreciated by me," he added.

Fox and News Corp. have market capitalizations of $15.2 billion and $11.7 billion, respectively, as their stock prices were up more than 2.6% on Thursday.

The Murdoch family controls 40% of voting rights at both companies, while its net worth stands at $17.5 billion, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List.