Rupert Murdoch takes on ranching

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch buys cattle ranch in Montana in the largest such deal in the state’s history.

By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com

From media mogul to farmer, billionaire continues his climb upwards.  
In the largest ranch deal in Montana history. Rupert Murdoch, 90, and his wife, Jerry, purchased a 340,000 acre ranch in southwest Montana, near Yellowstone National Park.

The deal—which happened this past December—is for the property known as Beaverhead Ranch, and was purchased from Matador Cattle Co., a subsidiary of Koch Industries for about US$200-million (~CDN$255-million).

Koch Industries was founded by Fred Koch, who founded the crude-oil-gathering business that grew into Koch Industries. He purchased the ranch about seven decades previous.

Murdoch—owner of HarperCollins, the Wall Street Journal, and hundreds of other well-known media enterprises—said he had been looking for a ranch property for over a year.

He added that he was “privileged to assume ownership of this beautiful land” and that along with anticipating spending time at the ranch, will enhance the commercial cattle business and its conservation assets.