News Corp shareholder revolt grows ahead of Friday’s AGM

The shareholder revolt at News Corp is growing ahead of Friday’s AGM – with some major players reportedly joining the anti-Murdoch camp.

The Independent reports here on the growing disquiet over News Corp’s handling of phone-hacking and other allegations of impropriety.

While the Murdoch clan only owns 11 per cent of News Corp, its shares carry 40 per cent of the voting rights. So there would need to be a near unanimous revolt for Rupert and James Murdoch to be unseated from their positions of power.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit filed by rebel News Corp shareholders rumbles on. They have accused the News Corp board of presiding over widespread “malfeasance” and Murdoch senior of treating the company like his “personal fiefdom”.

CNN had some more revelations about the goings on at News Corp US subsidiaries which prompted that suit over the weekend. It has more evidence of “allegations of corporate espionage, computer hacking and threats to destroy its competition” at News Corp subsidiary News America Marketing.

CNN has got hold of video evidence from a legal dispute in 1999.