Murdoch Empire Makes Bid To Buy Wall Street Journal

[ariesgem]

NEW YORK — Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday it received an unsolicited bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy the company for $5 billion, but it was unclear whether the family that controls the company would sell.

Dow Jones issued a brief statement confirming that its board had received the offer from News Corp. to buy the company at $60 a share, either in cash or a combination of cash and News Corp. stock. News of the offer, which was first reported on CNBC, sent Dow Jones' shares soaring, and also lifted those of other newspaper publishers.

Dow Jones is controlled by the Bancroft family through a special class of shares and cannot be taken over without their consent. The company said that its board and members of the family were evaluating the proposal, and that there was no assurance it would lead to a transaction.

The union representing Dow Jones employees, the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, was harshly critical of the prospect of being owned by Murdoch, and issued a statement saying that Murdoch's bid was opposed by the staff "from top to bottom."

"Mr. Murdoch has shown a willingness to crush quality and independence, and there is no reason to think he would handle Dow Jones or The Journal any differently," the union said. "Despite our differences of opinion with current management, we strongly encourage the Bancrofts to continue to stand up for the institution's independence, and to walk away from this offer."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070501/news-corp-dow-jones

[depakid]

1. Peas in a pod

and one more thing to divest News Corp of if the Dems ever regain the executive.

[AnneD]

2. Seeing as how the financial news is so skewed....

most folks won't notice any changes. The colourful pictures instead of the stipple drawings will be a nice change.:eyes:

[Ignacio Upton]

3. Actually their regular page is good

It's just the editorial board that shills for the GOP. Unfortunately, under Murdoch the WSJ will just look like a NY Post for business.

[AnneD]

4. The news

is skewed and the editorials suck. They get lucky once in a while with a good investigative piece, but I'm not holding my breath. They do for economic news what MSM does for regular news.