Media mogul Rupert Murdoch resigns as chairman of Fox, News Corp

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch has announced his resignation as chairman of Fox and News Corp confirming that his son Lachlan Murdoch will take over as CEO of both businesses.

In a memo to employees, Murdoch said "the time is right" for him to take on "different roles".

In 1996, 92-year-old Murdoch founded Fox News. In the US, it is now the news station with the highest viewership.

Midway through November, according to Murdoch, he will become Chairman Emeritus of both companies.

It comes after the businessman abandoned a plan to combine Fox and News Corp, which would have brought back two significant media holdings.

"Our companies are in robust health, as am I. Our opportunities far exceed our commercial challenges," he wrote. "We have every reason to be optimistic about the coming years - I certainly am, and plan to be here to participate in them."

The news of Murdoch's departure comes at a trying time for Fox, which in April settled a lawsuit over its coverage of the 2020 presidential election costing Dominion $787.5 million (£634 million), BBC reported.

The network's highest-rated and most well-known TV host, Tucker Carlson, was also "parting ways" with the firm on April 25.

The conservative Murdoch vowed to keep taking part in the "contest of ideas" in a memo to his staff.

Other media outlets were also criticised by him for being "in cahoots" with a "rarefied class" of elites who he claimed were "peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth."

Lachlan Murdoch stated in a statement that his father "will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies" after leaving the family business abruptly nearly ten years earlier.

The senior Murdoch started his career in his native Australia in the 1950s and finally came to run The Sun and News of the World in the UK in 1969.

Later, he bought other US publications, including the Wall Street Journal and New York Post. He continues to own hundreds of local, national, and international media outlets through News Corp.