(World Economic Forum/Wikimedia)
The independent directors of News Corp have appointed their own legal team as the company faces shareholder law suits and an investigation by the US authorities.News Corp's nine independent directors include Rod Eddington, the former chief executive of BA, John Thornton, former president of Goldman Sachs and José María Aznar, the former prime minister of Spain.
Another board member, billionaire investor Tom Perkins, has told the Wall Street Journal the directors have appointed law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, to advise them on the handling of the escalating phone-hacking crisis.
Perkins said: "The board honestly thinks Rupert is a genius and we need him and the company needs him. Our worry is the shareholders at this point. The British police will take care of the hacking victims. The next step is not to let the company go down the drain on this thing because we're focused on events in London that are a small percentage of our business overall."
Interesting. Is it merely an abundance of caution, or a distrust of what internal News Corp. attorneys might be telling them, or an extra bulwark erected against potential lawsuits targeted at the directors? I would presume all three.
A more immediately pressing problem, as the article points out, is that there continue to be calls from investment groups for both Murdochs to resign their posts, as News Corp. stock plunges and Standard & Poor's places the company's credit rating on "watch." If either Murdoch has lost the confidence of investors they may be forced to step aside whether they want to or not, simply to, as Perkins said, "not let the whole company go down the drain."