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MEDIA

The Murdoch family’s epic, decades-long succession battle has reached a multibillion-dollar finale. Lachlan Murdoch has completed an agreement to secure control of his family’s sprawling media empire for decades to come, the family announced Monday. The deal ensures that the empire’s various outlets, including Fox News, The New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal, will remain conservative after his father Rupert’s death. It is valued at $3.3 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations. The deal comes months after Rupert and Lachlan’s audacious bid to unilaterally change the terms of the Murdoch family’s irrevocable trust and disenfranchise Lachlan’s oldest siblings, Prue, Liz, and James. The bid initially failed in court, but ultimately brought the two sides to the negotiating table. The agreement gives the 94-year-old Rupert, who built a single Australian newspaper into the world’s most powerful media empire, what he has long sought — to preserve what he has called the “protector of the conservative voice in the English-speaking world” under the leadership of his chosen heir, Lachlan. Under the terms of the deal, Lachlan’s three oldest siblings will receive $1.1 billion each for all their shares in the empire, according to the person with knowledge of the negotiations. Those shares are currently held in the existing family trust, which will be dissolved. This amounts to roughly 80 percent of the value of their stock at the close of trading Friday. As part of the agreement, the ongoing litigation between Rupert and Lachlan, 54, and the three siblings over the trust will end. A new Murdoch family trust will be created that will include Lachlan and his two younger sisters, Grace and Chloe. That trust will hold the controlling stake in the two main Murdoch media companies, Fox Corp. and News Corp. The agreement won’t result in any immediate change; Lachlan has already been running the Murdoch business for the past few years. But it does clear up the uncertainty around the company’s future by locking in his long-term leadership. — NEW YORK TIMES

TECH

The former head of security for WhatsApp filed a lawsuit Monday accusing Meta of ignoring major security and privacy flaws that put billions of the messaging app’s users at risk, the latest in a string of whistle-blower allegations against the social media giant. In the lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California, Attaullah Baig claimed that thousands of WhatsApp and Meta employees could gain access to sensitive user data including profile pictures, location, group memberships, and contact lists. Meta, which owns WhatsApp, also failed to adequately address the hacking of more than 100,000 accounts each day and rejected his proposals for security fixes, according to the lawsuit. Baig tried to warn Meta’s top leaders, including its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, that users were being harmed by the security weaknesses, according to the lawsuit. In response, his managers retaliated and fired him in February, he claims. Baig, who is represented by the whistle-blower organization Psst.org and the law firm Schonbrun, Seplow, Harris, Hoffman & Zeldes, argued in the suit that the actions violated a privacy settlement Meta reached with the Federal Trade Commission in 2019, as well as securities laws that require companies to disclose risks to shareholders. Meta pushed back on his claims. “Sadly, this is a familiar playbook in which a former employee is dismissed for poor performance and then goes public with distorted claims that misrepresent the ongoing hard work of our team,” said Carl Woog, a spokesperson for WhatsApp. “Security is an adversarial space, and we pride ourselves in building on our strong record of protecting people’s privacy.” — NEW YORK TIMES

MEDIA

Paramount Skydance Corp. appointed the former head of a right-leaning Washington think tank to review complaints and concerns about bias at CBS News following the company’s $16 million settlement of litigation with President Trump. Kenneth Weinstein, currently the Japan chair at the Hudson Institute, will become ombudsman at CBS News, handling complaints from consumers, employees, and others, the parent of CBS and Paramount Pictures said Monday in a statement. His appointment follows a July accord ending the lawsuit. Trump accused CBS News of election interference in 2024 and claimed that the 60 Minutes news program edited an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris to be more flattering. At the time, Paramount was trying to complete an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. Following the Trump settlement, Skydance wrote a letter on July 22 to the Federal Communications Commission stating it would be willing to install an ombudsman at CBS News following the merger. The FCC approved the merger on July 24 and said that the company would hire an ombudsman and end diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

MEDIA

Howard Stern, the popular and highly paid radio host, returned to SiriusXM’s airwaves Monday after trolling listeners into thinking he had departed his long-running show. Stern, 71, who evolved from his shock jock origins to become a respected interviewer, enlisted a seemingly flustered Andy Cohen at the top of “The Howard Stern Show” to pretend to be his successor. “This was supposed to be a cleaner hand off. I’m kind of winging it,” said Cohen. Stern then came on the air and thanked the Bravo personality, who has his own SiriusXM show and podcast, for agreeing to do the bit. The stunt was the culmination of weeks of promos that promised a big reveal, following swirling speculation that Stern’s show would be canceled. “The tabloids have spoken: Howard Stern fired, canceled,” one promo video said. “Is it really bye-bye Booey?” The speculation grew after Stern postponed his return from a summer break last week. While he did return Monday, Stern did not announce that he had reached a new contract with SiriusXM. His current deal expires at the end of 2025. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

FINANCE

PNC Financial said Monday that it plans to buy Colorado-based FirstBank for $4.1 billion, giving PNC a substantial presence in the Colorado banking market as well as Arizona. Based in Lakewood, Colo., FirstBank, which is also branded as 1stBank, is a midsized bank that operates 120 retail branches with $26.7 billion in assets. The bank is privately held, but the banks disclosed that the stockholders of FirstBank who collectively own 45.7 percent of the shares have already voted in favor of the merger. PNC has been on an acquisition streak in the last few years that has made the Pennsylvania bank one of the biggest players in retail banking in the country, as PNC executives like to say “a coast-to-coast banking franchise.” PNC bought the US operations of Spanish bank BBVA shortly after the pandemic for $11.6 billion. The bank has also been opening new branches in multiple markets, but particularly in the Southwest. The FirstBank acquisition will make PNC the largest bank in the Denver market, and will give PNC more than 70 branches in Arizona. PNC will also grow to roughly $575 billion in assets. — ASSOCIATED PRESS