Murdoch Said to Chafe at AllThingsD Terms After Takeover

News Corp., which is severing ties with AllThingsD founders Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the end of the year, objected to the terms of the journalists’ contract soon after the media company took over the operation in 2007, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Mossberg and Swisher together take slightly more than 50 percent of AllThingsD’s conference revenue, including ticket sales and sponsorships, according to people familiar with the business, who asked not to be identified because the terms are private. The contract was originally negotiated years before News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch acquired AllThingsD as part of his Dow Jones purchase, and he and other executives bristled at the arrangement, people with knowledge of their thinking said.