Keith Rupert Murdoch, born 11 March 1931, is an American businessman, media entrepreneur, and investor of Australian descent. He owns hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world through his company News Corp, including The Sun and The Times in the United Kingdom, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, and The Australian in Australia, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post in the United States, and Sky News Australia and Fox News in Australia (through the Fox Corporation).

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He also owned Sky (until 2018), Fox (until 2019), and now-defunct News of the World. Murdoch is the 31st richest individual in the United States and the 71st richest person in the world, with a net worth of $21.7 billion as of 2 March 2022.

Murdoch took over The News, a small Adelaide newspaper owned by his father, after his father died in 1952. Murdoch purchased a number of newspapers in Australia and New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, acquiring the News of the World and The Sun.

Murdoch relocated to New York City in 1974 to expand into the US market; nevertheless, he retained stakes in Australia and the United Kingdom. Murdoch purchased The Times, his first British broadsheet, in 1981 and, in 1985, became a naturalised US citizen, giving up his Australian citizenship, to meet the legal criteria for ownership of a US television network.

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Murdoch centralised his UK printing operations in London in 1986, eager to implement newer electronic publishing technologies, resulting in heated labour struggles. His business News Corporation purchased Twentieth Century Fox in 1985, HarperCollins in 1989, and The Wall Street Journal in 1990. (2007). Murdoch founded the British broadcaster BSkyB in 1990 and expanded into Asian networks and South American television during the 1990s. Murdoch’s News Corporation held over 800 enterprises in over 50 countries by 2000, with a net value of more than $5 billion.

Murdoch faced claims in July 2011 that his companies, particularly News Corporation-owned News of the World, had been regularly tapping the phones of celebrities, aristocracy, and public figures. Murdoch was the subject of police and government investigations into bribery and corruption in the United Kingdom, as well as FBI investigations in the United States. Murdoch resigned as a director of News International on July 21, 2012.

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Many of Murdoch’s newspapers and television channels have been accused of providing biased and misleading coverage in order to support his business interests and political allies, and some have credited his influence with major political developments in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.