Payday for the Murdochs

The News Corp. chieftain is giving each of his six children $100 million worth of stock, and that, of course, has Murdoch watchers reading the tea leaves. Murdoch has made it clear that he would like to see one of the kids take over, but which one? Lachlan left the company in 2005 and moved to Australia, James is head of British Sky Broadcasting (News Corp. owns about 38 percent), Prudence and Elisabeth don't have roles with the company, and then there's Grace and Chloe (5 and 3, respectively), who he had with his wife, Wendi (my money is on Chloe). The distributions are non-voting shares, so Murdoch still has a 30 percent voting stake (soon to be 38 percent once John Malone gives up his News Corp. shares in return for Murdoch's interest in El Segundo-based DirecTV). FT