LAW – UNITED STATES – CASES

Murdoch defamation case could be impossible for Trump to win, experts say

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Original article by Georgie Hewson
abc.net.au – Page: Online : 23-Jul-25

The Wall Street Journal intends to "vigorously" defend its journalism in a defamation lawsuit that has been launched by US President Donald Trump. The newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, is facing legal action after publishing an article which alleged that Trump had sent a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein that included a sexually suggestive drawing. Trump has denied sending any such letter to the convicted sex offender. Harry Melkonian from the US Studies Centre notes that it is very hard for public figures – and particularly the nation’s president – to win a defamation lawsuit in the US.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. UNITED STATES STUDIES CENTRE

Rupert Murdoch loses bid to change control of family trust

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Original article by Jessica Toonkel, Katherine Sayre
The Australian – Page: 15 : 11-Dec-24

Nevada probate commissioner Edmund Gorman jnr has rejected a bid by media mogul Rupert Murdoch to change the terms of a family trust in favour of his oldest son, Lachlan. At present, Murdoch’s four oldest children will have equal control of the 93-year-old’s media empire when he dies; however, Murdoch had sought to give Lachlan full control of the trust, and therefore its voting stakes in News Corporation and Fox Corp. A lawyer for Murdoch has flagged plans to appeal the ruling.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, FOX CORPORATION

Headaches for Murdochs in battle for trust

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Original article by Sam Buckingham-Jones
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 & 20 : 11-Sep-24

A probate court in Nevada will shortly commence hearing Rupert Murdoch’s bid to change the terms of a family trust to ensure that eldest son Lachlan has control of the magnate’s media empire when he dies. Three of Murdoch’s other children are insisting that all four siblings retain equal voting rights. Documents that were recently filed with the court show that the Murdochs want rival media outlets such as CNN and The New York Times to be barred from the courtroom; amongst other things, the Murdochs contend that their personal safety would be at risk if the court proceedings were open to the media.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, FOX CORPORATION

Google violated antitrust laws to dominate online search, US judge rules

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Original article by Nick Robins-Early
The Guardian – Page: Online : 6-Aug-24

Shares in technology stocks such as Apple and Google have fallen sharply in response to the US District Court’s ruling that the latter has breached anti-trust laws. Judge Amit Mehta has concluded that Google is a ‘monopolist’, and it has acted as one to maintain its market dominance with regard to search services and advertising. Department of Justice prosecutors had contended amongst other things that Google has suppressed competition by paying billions of dollars to smartphone makers such as Apple and Samsung to use it as their default search engine.

CORPORATES
GOOGLE INCORPORATED, DISTRICT COURT OF UNITED STATES, UNITED STATES. DEPT OF JUSTICE, APPLE INCORPORATED, SAMSUNG CORPORATION

Fox and Dominion settle for $US787.5m in defamation lawsuit over election lies

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Original article by Sam Levine, Kira Lerner
The Guardian – Page: Online : 19-Apr-23

Fox Corporation has agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Dominion Voting Systems regarding the latter’s $US1.6bn defamation case. The legal action centred on claims made by Fox News presenters that Dominion’s voting machines were used to manipulate the 2020 US presidential election. The parties reached a settlement shortly before the six-week jury trial was scheduled to begin. The terms of the $US787.5m ($1.17bn) settlement have not been disclosed. Fox Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch is amongst those who had been called to testify.

CORPORATES
FOX CORPORATION, FOX NEWS, DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS CORPORATION

Murdoch said Fox hosts endorsed idea of stolen election

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Original article by
The New Daily – Page: Online : 1-Mar-23

Court documents released in the US show that Fox Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch and other executives of the media group believed that Joe Biden had fairly won the 2020 presidential election. The documents also show that Murdoch had acknowledged under oath that some Fox hosts had "endorsed" the notion that Biden had "stolen" the election. Dominion Voting System is suing Fox Corp for defamation over Fox News’s coverage of the election. The voting technology company has argued that internal communications and depositions by Fox personnel prove that the network had knowingly spread falsehoods about Donald Trump election loss in order to bolster its ratings.

CORPORATES
FOX CORPORATION, FOX NEWS, DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS

Facebook beats Biden’s antitrust suit

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Original article by Cecilia Kang
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 30-Jun-21

The market capitalisation of Facebook has risen above $US1bn for the first time after a judge dismissed an antitrust case against the social media giant. The US Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states had launched the case against Facebook, but the federal court ruled amongst other things that the prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence to support claims that the company has a monopoly in the social networking sector. The lawsuit had sought to break up Facebook by forcing it to divest Instagram and WhatsApp, which it had acquired in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, DISTRICT COURT OF UNITED STATES, INSTAGRAM LLC, WHATSAPP INCORPORATED

Demerging Alcoa slams ‘opportunistic’ Alumina

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Original article by Barry FitzGerald
The Australian – Page: 22 : 10-Jun-16

Alcoa’s vice-president of investor relations, Matt Garth, has criticised Alumina over its attempt to use the US group’s proposed demerger to renegotiate the Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals joint venture. Garth told investors and analysts in Sydney that Alumina is being "emotional and opportunistic", and rejected the Australian-listed company’s claim that it must agree to the Alcoa demerger under the terms of the AWAC agreement. He added that Alcoa is confident that a court will rule in its favour.

CORPORATES
ALUMINA LIMITED – ASX AWC, ALCOA INCORPORATED, ALCOA WORLDWIDE ALUMINA AND CHEMICALS, MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, ALLAN GRAY AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Aussie miner accused of menacing US giant Alcoa on demerger plan

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Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 30-May-16

US aluminium giant Alcoa has launched legal action against Australian-listed Alumina, its partner in the Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals joint venture. The dispute centres on Alcoa’s proposal to demerge its upstream and downstream assets. The former will hold Alcoa’s 60 per cent stake in AWAC if the deal proceeds. Alcoa’s lawsuit alleges that the joint venture agreement does give Alumina the right to block the demerger.

CORPORATES
ALUMINA LIMITED – ASX AWC, ALCOA INCORPORATED, ALCOA WORLDWIDE ALUMINA AND CHEMICALS

Computershare pleads guilty to bribes in US

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Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 17-Aug-15

An adviser at US-based Institutional Shareholder Services has pleaded guilty to receiving bribes from two employees of shareholder communications business Georgeson. The US Department of Justice says the matter is continued to be investigated. Georgeson is owned by Australian-listed share registry group Computershare.

CORPORATES
COMPUTERSHARE LIMITED – ASX CPU, GEORGESON SHAREHOLDER COMMUNICATIONS INCORPORATED, UNITED STATES. DEPT OF JUSTICE, RISKMETRICS GROUP INCORPORATED, UNITED STATES. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION