By SYLVIA HUI
By SYLVIA HUI
Associated Press
LONDON — Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has resigned as a director of a number of News Corp. boards overseeing his Britain newspapers, a spokeswoman confirmed Saturday. He also quit from some of the media company’s subsidiary boards in the United States.
Murdoch stepped down this past week as a director of NI Group, Times Newspaper Holdings and News Corp. Investments in the U.K., said Daisy Dunlop, spokeswoman for News Corp.’s British arm, News International. The companies oversee The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times.
It was not immediately clear which of News Corp.’s U.S. boards Murdoch had left. Britain’s Telegraph newspaper, which first reported the news late Saturday, said those details had not yet been disclosed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
News International sought to play down the significance of the resignations, saying in a statement that “this is nothing more than a corporate housecleaning exercise prior to the company split.”
Saturday’s announcement suggests that Murdoch may be distancing himself from his British newspaper interests, which have been shaken to the core by a widespread phone hacking scandal.