The News Corp annual general meeting ended just 24 minutes after it began.
And, just before the lights went out, Rupert Murdoch offered an odd, maybe ominous, farewell.
"See you next year I hope," the 84-year-old Australian-born media mogul said.
News Corp AGMs once had a circus atmosphere, with a raucous line of activist shareholders, including America's Evelyn Davis and Australia's Stephen Mayne, queueing behind microphones to blast or praise Mr Murdoch over a few hours.
Only two shareholders stepped up to the microphone inside Manhattan's New York Institute of Technology auditorium on Wednesday.
One, Laura Shaffer Campos, of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, a New York-based organisation focused on building a "socially and economically just society", failed to lead a shareholder revolt to diminish the Murdoch family's control on News Corp.
It was not immediately clear how close the foundation came.
Mr Murdoch said the final results would be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but thanked shareholders for "a majority of eligible votes".
The proposal called for the elimination of News Corp's dual class capital structure, which allows the Murdochs to control nearly 40 per cent of the voting power despite owning around 14 per cent of the company.
A similar disgruntled shareholder proposal last year just fell short with 47.4 per cent of the vote.
"I would urge you to listen to that message unaffiliated shareholders are sending you and to take another look at what's right for all of your shareholders, and not just shareholders with the last name Murdoch," Nathan Cummings Foundation shareholder activities director Laura Shaffer Campos told Mr Murdoch.
Mr Murdoch, his sons James and Lachlan, both members of the board and in attendance at the AGM, were re-elected.
The vote counts also were not immediately available.
There was a little talk about how News Corp - which includes The Australian, Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph newspapers, FOX Sport, 50 per cent of pay-TV company Foxtel, the UK's The Sun, The Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US and HarperCollins Publishers - was performing.
While the company faced challenges in the Australian and British newspaper advertising market, Mr Murdoch said the company was addressing them head-on "by reinvesting in high-quality content and expanding our digital offerings with increased focus on data".
"But the US remains a bright spot, in particular there's the strong performance of the Wall Street Journal," he said.
News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson gave an optimistic longterm view of the company.
"With stable revenues, EBITDA growth and robust free cashflow in fiscal 2015, we are optimistic about the longterm and we look to continue building the business for the benefit of all of our customers, our employees and our shareholders," Thomson said.
