Paul Ryan Joins Fox Corp.’s Board of Directors

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) is joining Fox Corp.’s board of directors, the media giant announced Tuesday morning.

Ryan and Formula One Group executive chairman Chase Carey will join Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, and Jacques Nasser as members of the powerful board. Aragon CEO Anne Dias and Hernandez Media Ventures chief Roland A. Hernandez have also been added.

“We are thrilled to welcome our new colleagues to the FOX board. We look forward to working with and being guided by them as we begin a new chapter, steadfastly committed to providing the best in news, sports and entertainment programming,” Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement.

The additions to the board came as Fox separated Tuesday from the corporation’s entertainment assets that Disney is expected to take over at midnight Wednesday.

Further, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox’s board approved the adoption of a stockholder rights agreement, also refered to as a “poison pill,” which is scheduled to expire after the next annual stockholders meeting and take effect “if a person or group obtains beneficial ownership of 15 percent or more of the Class B common stock outstanding, or 15 percent or more of the common stock outstanding.”

The poison pill is “intended to protect the stockholders of the company … from actions that the board of directors determines are not in the best interest of the company’s stockholders,” the company said. “The agreement is not intended to interfere with any merger, tender or exchange offer, share acquisition or other business combination transaction approved in advance by the board of directors, and the agreement does not prevent the board of directors from considering any offer that it considers to be in the best interest of the company’s stockholders.”