Rupert Murdoch

The results released Monday from the News Corp. annual meeting last week suggest that most shareholders not affiliated with the family are opposed to one of Murdoch’s children taking control of the media conglomerate when its 80-year-old leader steps down.

Investor outrage led Rupert Murdoch to shut down Friday’s annual meeting after less than an hour and a half. The company later announced that the coup attempt against Murdoch and his directors had failed.

More than 100 people demonstrated Friday outside the annual meeting on the lot of News Corp.’s Fox Studios in Los Angeles. British lawmaker Tom Watson asked CEO Rupert Murdoch whether he was aware that a person who had left prison was hired by News Corp. and hacked the computer of a former army intelligence officer.

In Los Angeles for a shareholders meeting today, Rupert Murdoch will face pressure to remove himself and his sons from the News Corp. board. Critics say his handpicked board provides little oversight of a company with questionable ethics.

If shareholder votes of past years are any guide, the protest vote against some members of News Corp.‘s board at Friday’s annual meeting could be sizable—but it is unlikely to precipitate any changes. Meanwhile, some analysts and investors say they are more focused on shareholder-friendly actions being taken, like a share buyback that is under way.

Rupert Murdoch’s campaign to keep control of News Corp. suffered a fresh blow on Friday after another key shareholder group called for his eviction from the board of the embattled media company.

Things could be interesting in Los Angeles on Oct. 21 when News Corp holds its annual shareholders meeting. Advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended today that stock owners reject 13 of News Corp’s 15 board members, including the three Murdochs: Rupert and his sons James and Lachlan.

Neville Thurlbeck, the News of The World reporter named in the key “for Neville” phone-hacking email, issued a statement Friday,  hitting out at Rupert Murdoch’s News International for briefing against him, warning that “the truth will out” and that the guilty would be identified.

Jonathan Chapman, the former director of legal affairs with News International, said Rupert Murdoch wasn’t being accurate when he told Parliament that he blamed the London law firm Harbottle & Lewis for failing to uncover the scope of the hacking scandal back in 2007.

Rupert Murdoch and his son James, accused by two former employees of misleading Parliament last month, will be hauled back to testify again — this time under oath. As the News Corp. phone-hacking and police-bribery scandal continues to unfold, the company is expanding its internal investigation, led by former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein.

In written testimony released by lawmakers today, former Murdoch lieutenants poked holes in the dramatic testimony delivered by their ex-bosses Rupert and James before Parliament last month, accusing them of misrepresentations, exaggerations and more.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch’s stance came as the company reported that its net income fell in the last quarter by 22%, mainly because of the sale of money-losing social-networking site Myspace. The phone hacking scandal and questions about Murdoch’s control of News Corp. overshadowed the media giant’s results, which beat expectations when excluding the Myspace sale.

The closeness between News Corp. and its independent directors is an example of how chumminess in the boardroom can be a problem.

The FBI’s early fact-gathering could turn into a long saga that tests or reinforces the long-standing cooperation between U.S. and British law enforcement. Most of the records and witnesses to prove or disprove the allegations are in the hands of British investigators.

Sens. Barbara Boxer and John D. Rockefeller IV are pressing a Dow Jones & Co. editorial oversight board to investigate whether any Dow Jones executives played a role in or knew about the U.K. phone-hacking scandal that has rocked corporate parent News Corp. The senators also asked the committee for reassurance that similar activities haven’t taken place in the U.S.

A protester interrupted Rupert Murdoch’s testimony in London today. Murdoch appeared by turns vague, truculent, sharp and concise as he spoke alongside his son and deputy, James, calling the parliamentary inquiry “the most humble day of my career” but refusing to take personal blame for the crisis that has swept from a tabloid newspaper through the top levels of Britain’s police and even to the prime minister’s office.

News Corp. is considering elevating Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey to chief executive officer to succeed Rupert Murdoch, people with knowledge of the situation said. A decision hasn’t been made and a move depends in part on Murdoch’s performance before the U.K. Parliament, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Murdoch would remain chairman, the people said.

Just a day after saying in a newspaper interview that News Corp. had made only “minor mistakes,” Murdoch signed an apology to run in Britain’s national newspapers for “serious wrongdoing” by the News of the World, which shut down last week amid allegations of large-scale illegal hacking by its staff.

The House of Commons committee on Culture, Media and Sport has asked Murdoch to appear next week with his son James and Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International, the News Corp. unit which controls the company’s British newspapers. Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg urged Murdoch to appear even though it was unclear whether the committee could compel attendance by Murdoch, who is a U.S. citizen.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said the government would vote with the opposition Labour Party on Wednesday to support a motion calling on Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. to withdraw the $12 billion bid for highly profitable satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Line-skirting has always been part of doing business for Rupert Murdoch, but the widening voice-mail hacking scandal at the British tabloid News of the World threatens to stain the company’s image in a way that other embarrassing incidents at News Corp.’s far-flung media properties — which also include the Fox networks and the New York Post — have not.

News Corp. shareholders Amalgamated Bank and the Central Laborers Pension Fund filed suit against Rupert Murdoch and his company Wednesday, claiming that a deal to purchase Elisabeth Murdoch’s production company for $675 million is driven by nepotism and not the interests of investors.

The British television production company founded by News Corp. chief’ Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth, is being purchased by her father’s company for £415 million ($673.3 million).

News Corp. is reportedly in the final days of discussion about acquiring Shine Group, the independent television production company—now one of the largest in the world—42-year-old Elisabeth Murdoch founded after she left News Corp. during a spat with her father more than a decade ago.

Rupert Murdoch today unveiled The Daily, a news app that he hoped would put his News Corp. front and center in the digital newsstand of the near future. “New times demand new journalism,” he said.

The mogul is trying to bring daughter Elisabeth back to News Corp. with a deal to purchase her production company, Shine Group. Here’s a look at Rupert’s “master plan” for keeping the media empire in the family.