ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- Rupert Murdoch told shareholders Wednesday that the stock price of his News Corp. media empire was "rotten" after falling more than 15 percent this year but would eventually rebound strongly as investors' fears of new technologies such as the Internet faded.

News Corp.'s U.S.-based chairman and CEO returned Wednesday to the Australian city where his multinational media company was launched to address local shareholders for the first time since he shifted the company's base to the United States a year ago.

Murdoch told shareholders in the southern city of Adelaide that all major media companies including Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc. had suffered similar share price losses.

"I do recognize the fact that the share price at the moment is rotten," Murdoch told shareholders.

"There is some disconnect between our constant growth and share price and if you look at the share price of all the other major media companies in the world, there is a bit of an investor strike.

"People are worried about the impact of new technologies," he said in an obvious reference to the Internet. He cited "the tremendous amount of work to be done" in getting News Corp. to turn a significant profit from the Internet.

"As people realize as the world goes on and gets more complicated and more advanced that media is going to be a bigger and more central industry than ever before," he said.

Murdoch predicted that the price would come back strongly, but he said he did not know when.

News Corp. shares fell 20 cents Tuesday to close at $15.30 on the New York Stock Exchange, near their 52-week low of $14.76. They have tumbled 15.2 percent since January.

Murdoch was reunited Tuesday with his 33-year-old son Lachlan Murdoch at a media awards ceremony in Adelaide. Lachlan Murdoch quit the company suddenly and returned to Australia from New York in July, apparently ending his father's hopes that he would one day take over as CEO.

Murdoch, 74, said Wednesday his replacement would be decided by News Corp.'s directors.

"We have a very strong bunch of candidates, if you like, of senior executives of the company that would please and be seen as a good asset in any company," Murdoch told reporters after the meeting. "I'm just sick of being told I'm dying -- I'm feeling great."

Asked if he would prefer his successor to be a member of his family, Murdoch said: "It's not going to be my say at all."

Murdoch returned to Adelaide to fulfill his promise to hold a shareholders' meeting in the city annually despite the company's move and incorporation in the United States.

One of the shareholders who attended the meeting was Murdoch's mother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, 96, who said she was happy the company had shifted offshore.

"Yes, I think so, it had to come," she said before the meeting. "We were happy; we have great confidence that he always knows best."