James Murdoch, Elisabeth Murdoch and Prudence MacLeod nee Murdoch say they are happy to have reached an agreement to settle litigation over the Murdoch family trust.
"Prudence, Elisabeth and James are pleased that the matter is now behind them," said a spokesperson for James Murdoch in a statement.
The Murdoch family reached a deal this week in which Murdoch's politically conservative eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, will cement control of the family media empire, which includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.
The agreement, announced on Tuesday, ends a family brawl over who will control one of the most high-profile global media groups, putting to rest questions of succession within the Murdoch family after its patriarch's death.
The Murdoch family drama was widely viewed as an inspiration for the television series Succession, about infighting among members of a media dynasty.
Its real-life resolution preserves the conservative tilt of Murdoch's media outlets.
Murdochs prevented from buying back in
The feud was sparked by a plan to change the Murdoch family trust to hand control of the family's companies to Lachlan when Rupert, 94, dies.
The plan required a rewrite of the trust's "irrevocable" terms, which would have evenly divided control of Fox Corporation and News Corporation between Rupert's four oldest children.
Three of them — James, Elisabeth and Prudence — opposed the plan, which was devised by Rupert and Lachlan, and the dispute went before a court in Nevada last year.
In December, the court's probate commissioner found Lachlan and his father had acted in "bad faith", and ruled in favour of the three siblings.
"The effort was an attempt to stack the deck in Lachlan Murdoch's favour after Rupert Murdoch's passing so that the succession would be immutable," the commissioner wrote. Rupert had vowed to appeal.
Now, a Fox Corporation statement says the family has "reached a mutual resolution of the legal proceeding in Nevada … resulting in the termination of all litigation".
James, Elisabeth and Prudence will each receive more than $US1 billion ($1.52 billion) for their shares in the companies, The New York Times reported, citing an anonymous source with knowledge of the negotiations.
Fox said the three siblings would also be prevented from ever buying back into the companies.
The family trust will be resolved, and new trusts will be set up for Lachlan and his younger half-sisters, Chloe and Grace, who had a non-controlling stake in the original trust.
ABC/Reuters
