Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as the chairman of Fox Corp and News Corp, ending a more than seven-decade career during which he created a media empire spanning from Australia to the United States, including in India.

His son, Lachlan Murdoch, will become the sole chairman of News Corp and continue as the chair and CEO of Fox, the companies said yesterday, according to a Reuters report.

The transition solidifies Lachlan’s role as the leader of the media empire, putting to rest questions of succession within the Murdoch family.

The news comes just months after Murdoch, 92, scrapped a plan that would have reunited his media empire by merging Fox and News Corp. Murdoch, who has near-controlling stakes in both companies, will be appointed chairman emeritus of both the companies.

In a memo to staff Thursday, Murdoch wrote: “Our companies are in robust health, as am I.”

Murdoch, who has six children, has long desired his children to eventually take the reins of the empire. His son James had been CEO of Twenty-First Century Fox prior to the company’s decision to sell its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co. for $71.3 billion, a deal that closed in 2019.

James then channeled proceeds from the deal into a private investment firm, Lupa Systems. Lachlan was appointed CEO of the new Fox Corp.

Meanwhile, an AP report from New York quoted Lachlan Murdoch as saying “we are grateful that he will serve as chairman emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies”.

Besides Fox News, Murdoch started the Fox broadcast network, the first to successfully challenge the Big Three of ABC, CBS and NBC, with shows like ‘The Simpsons’. He is owner of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

Fox News Channel has profoundly influenced television and the USpolitics since its start in 1996, making Murdoch a hero to some and pariah to others. The 24-hour network converted the power and energy of political talk radio to television. Within six years, it out-rated CNN and MSNBC, the AP report added.

There was no immediate word on why Murdoch’s announcement came now. Ironically, it is the week author and Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff is publishing a book, ‘The End of Fox News’, speculating on what will happen to the network when the patriarch is gone.

Murdoch and his family, particularly children James, Lachlan, Elisabeth and Prudence, were said to be the model of the HBO show ‘Succession’.

He built his empire from a single newspaper in Adelaide, Australia, inherited from his father and became a multi-billionaire. Forbes estimated the Murdoch family’s net worth at roughly $19 billion in 2020.

While Murdoch never ran for political office, politicians in the United States and Britain anxiously sought his approval, the AP report concluded.