Last year's vote (which in any case was non-binding on directors) may be the high-water mark. Getting the coalition that opposed the Murdochs back together may prove too hard.

Numbers game

It's all about the numbers. News Corp's 381.8 million A stock are the bulk of the capital. The A shares are worth $US5.1 billion but the investors who own those shares essentially have no voting rights.

Control is entirely in the hands of the investors who own News Corp's 199.6 million B stock.

Rupert Murdoch controls 78.7 million of these B shares, which is 39.4 per cent of the total voting rights. His close supporter Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal has another 2 million B shares (1 per cent).

But that's misleading, because the number of shares voted at an AGM is always less than 100 per cent, which makes the Murdoch influence even greater.

In 2014, only 166 million shares were voted at the AGM. So the Murdochs' shares accounted for 47 per cent of the B shares that actually voted.

Last year 180.5 million shares were voted, which meant the Murdoch votes counted for 44.4 per cent. Apart from Prince Alwaleed, only 7 million stock was voted to support the Murdochs, against 89.6 million votes in favour of changing the voting structure.


That's to say, in a $US7.85 billion company, Murdoch's only supporters outside his family and Prince Alwaleed hold just $US100 million of stock. Yet that tiny amount was just enough to hold the line last year.

Possible deal

The backbone of the anti-Murdoch sentiment has been Australian fund managers, who hold News Corp B shares on the ASX in the form of CHESS Depositary Interests, or CDIs. The number of CDIs goes up and down as a crude measure of the Australian holdings. They spurn A stock.

Last annual meeting Australian fundies held 47 million B CDIs on the ASX (and 2 million A stock CDIs). Almost half of these CDIs were held by Perpetual, which built up a 10.3 per cent stake last year, some 20.5 million B CDIs.

This year Australian buying took the total of ASX CDIs of the B stock to 59.6 million by early September. Yet in the last month it appears that one or more of the Australian institutions has swapped 10 million B shares for the non-voting A shares.

That means fewer voting shares in Australian hands. News Corp directors have been wooing the fundies this year. This looks like a deal of some kind.

So. Are the Murdochs feeling lucky?