The closely watched Murdoch succession drama has ended with a $3.3-billion settlement that gives Lachlan Murdoch control of the family's influential media assets, including Fox News, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal.

Fox Corp. on Monday announced the "mutual resolution" of the legal wrangling that had clouded the future direction of the television company and the Murdoch-controlled publishing firm News Corp. The dollar figure was confirmed by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.

The succession battle flared into public view last year after three of Murdoch's children attempted to block proposed changes that patriarch Rupert Murdoch wanted to make to his trust to cement his oldest son Lachlan's grip on power. In December, a Nevada probate commissioner rejected Rupert Murdoch's request to amend his trust amid the opposition by three of his adult children.

The 94-year-old mogul wanted to ensure the conservative leanings of his media empire would carry on and felt that Lachlan Murdoch, 54, who serves as chairman and chief executive of Fox, was the most ideologically compatible with his own point of view.

"Rupert sought to change the family trust arguing that without Lachlan in control, the conservative political bent of Fox News would be endangered," Lightshed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield wrote Monday night in a research note. "Fox News' future is now secure."

Until now, Rupert's four oldest children — Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch — were set to jointly inherit control of the businesses.

But, as part of the settlement, Prudence, Elisabeth and James agreed to relinquish their shares in the family trust and give up any roles going forward.

Rupert Murdoch had become troubled by the more liberal tilt of his second son, James, and was motivated to blunt the influence of James and his older sisters to avoid a messy family fight after he is gone.

The wrangling exposed the family's fissures and factions. For much of the last year, James, Elisabeth and Prudence were sharply at odds with their father and Lachlan.

Rupert Murdoch had appealed the probate commissioner's recommendation, and the matter was pending before a Nevada judge. The two sides worked for several months to find a peaceful resolution, the knowledgeable insider said. As part of the agreement, the litigation will be dropped.

The mogul's current trust will be dissolved and two new trusts will be established. One will benefit Lachlan Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch's two youngest daughters, Chloe and Grace Murdoch, who were born during his union with ex-wife Wendi Deng.

Fox said Monday that voting control of the Fox and News Corp. shares held by this trust "will rest solely with Lachlan Murdoch through his appointed managing director" through 2050.

The second trust will benefit Prudence, Elisabeth, James and their descendants. Fox Corp. separately announced a public offering of 16.9 million shares of Fox Corp. stock, currently held by the Murdoch Family Trust.

Those proceeds, along with the sale of 14.2 million shares of publishing company News Corp.'s Class B common stock, will help fund the new trust. The three departing siblings each will hold a share currently valued at $1.1 billion.

Rupert Murdoch has long exercised iron control. He began building his global empire after inheriting a single newspaper in Australia when his father, a respected editor, died more than 70 years ago. Rupert has long made his wishes known that a Murdoch would continue to run his companies long after he is gone.

Over the years, he gave Elisabeth, James and Lachlan executive roles in the company allowing them to work with him and learn the sharp-elbowed business.

During tensions with senior executives 20 years ago, Lachlan Murdoch abruptly quit his senior role at News Corp. and moved back to his father's native Australia.

For more than a decade, it seemed that James Murdoch, who stayed on to run various divisions, would eventually succeed his father.

But in 2014, after separating his media company into two halves — Fox and News Corp. — Rupert coaxed Lachlan back into the fold. He established a tenuous power-sharing arrangement between his two sons.

Ideological differences soon surfaced.

James Murdoch supported environmental causes and became troubled by Fox News' favorable coverage of President Trump during his first term and the far-right demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.

James and his wife donated $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League, which was viewed as an act of defiance.

Later that year, Rupert Murdoch struck a deal to sell most of the Fox entertainment assets to Walt Disney Co. The elder Murdoch recognized his entertainment company would be too small to effectively compete in the streaming age against tech titans, including Netflix, Amazon and Google's YouTube.

The $71-billion sale to Disney was also a way for Rupert Murdoch to head off a succession battle. When the deal was completed in early 2019, James left the company and Lachlan was named CEO of Fox, which included Fox News, Fox Sports and the Fox broadcast network. Lachlan also served as a News Corp. director.

But tensions remained.

In 2020, James abruptly resigned from the News Corp. board, citing "disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions."

By last year, Rupert Murdoch wanted to change his trust to make sure that Lachlan did not have to battle James and his sisters — or break up the $44-billion media empire.

The trust was established after Murdoch's divorce from his second wife, Anna Torv Murdoch Mann, the mother of Elisabeth, Lachlan and James. As part of that 1998 divorce settlement, Murdoch agreed to pass control of his empire to his then-four adult children after his passing.

Chloe and Grace, Murdoch's two daughters from his subsequent marriage to Deng, were given economic stakes in the trust, but not voting shares.

"Fox's board of directors welcomes these developments and believes that the leadership, vision and management by the Company's CEO and Executive Chair, Lachlan Murdoch, will continue to be important to guiding the Company's strategy and success," the board said in a statement.

Fox said it is not selling any of its stock.

The family will sell nonvoting Class B shares and hold on to its voting shares — and control. Rupert Murdoch will remain the company's chairman emeritus.

During a six-month period following the stock sales, James, Prudence and Elisabeth will be expected to "sell their de minimis personal holdings in FOX and News Corp." to sever all ties with the companies.

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