Rupert Murdoch receives $12.5m bonus

News Corp chief’s total pay package soars 47% to $33m, while his son James lands $6m bonus to hit total of almost $18m The News Corporation chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, received a $12.5m (£7.7m) cash bonus for the last financial year, while his total remuneration rose 47% year on year to $33m, according to the company’s annual statement to shareholders. His son James Murdoch – who is chairman and chief executive of News Corporation in Europe and Asia – also benefited handsomely, with a $6m cash bonus taking his total remuneration to almost $18m – a 74% rise on his 2010 take-home pay. The bonuses were for the year to the end of June, during which News Corporation became mired in the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed the News of the World. The affair only escalated into a full-blown corporate crisis, with the closure of the News of the World and several executive resignations, in July, shortly after the end of News Corp’s 2010/11 financial year. Chase Carey, News Corp’s chief operating officer and Murdoch’s right-hand man, took home $30m in the year to 30 June, including a $10m bonus. Roger Ailes, who runs Fox News, received a slight increase in total compensation in 2011, up to $15.5m from $13.9m in 2010. Ailes received a $1.5m cash bonus. The Murdochs’ remuneration was revealed in their report to shareholders ahead of the News Corp annual general meeting on 21 October. News Corp also announced on Friday that two of its longest-serving directors are to leave. Ken Crowley, a trusted lieutenant for more than 50 years, will leave the News Corp board of directors he joined in 1979 when Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive, established the global holding company for his media businesses. Thomas Perkins, a partner of private investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and member of the News Corp board since 1996, will also step down after the media group’s AGM next month. Jim Breyer, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and one of the first investors in Facebook, will join the News Corp board in October. •

Posted by on September 2, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.