Keith Rupert Murdoch,
AC (born 11 March 1931) is an
Australian-born American media owner. He is a major shareholder, chairman and managing director of
News Corporation (News Corp).
Beginning with one newspaper in
Adelaide, Murdoch acquired and started other publications in his native Australia before expanding News Corp into the
United Kingdom,
United States and Asian media markets. Although it was in Australia in the late 1950s that he first dabbled in television, he later sold these assets, and News Corp's Australian current media interests (still mainly in print) are restricted by cross-media ownership rules. Murdoch's first permanent foray into TV was in the UK, where he created
Sky Television in 1989. In the 2000s he became a leading investor in satellite television, the film industry and the Internet.
According to the 2009
Forbes 400, Murdoch is the
132nd-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $4 billion.