The Murdoch Family just became rich(er). Rupert Murdoch and sons, James and Lachlan, each hauled in around $50 million in fiscal 2018, representing huge pay bumps from the prior year.
Rupert Murdoch, the 21st Century Fox executive chairman, actually had the lightest compensation of the family this year, with $49.2 million. Don’t feel sorry for the media mogul, however, that’s still a very healthy 68 percent bump from fiscal 2017, according to SEC filings.
The big boss man, like his boys (and CFO John Nallen and general counsel Gerson Zweifach, for that matter), saw his all-in pay soar due to stock awards associated with the pending Disney takeover. The retention of Fox’s top executives through the Disney merger resulted in large payouts that would not have existed in a *normal* operational year.
Rupert’s stock take was $23.3 million, which nearly matched the rest of his executive compensation. Those categories include a salary of $7.1 million, non-equity incentive plan pay of $13.1 million and a $5.6 million pension contribution.
Lachlan Murdoch, who shares his father’s executive chairman title, earned $50.7 million in fiscal 2018, the most of the bunch. His stock take was $36.7 million — brother James got the same. Pretty much the only thing separating the siblings’ pay was Lachlan’s $728,000 pension contribution.
James and Lachlan both made $3 million in salary and almost $10 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation. James’ all-in number was $50.3 million. Both guys made $20 million and change in fiscal 2017 — so their dollars more than doubled year to year.
Nallen made $23.8 million in fiscal 2018, Zweifach earned $19.4 million.