Friday, July 06, 2007

Dow Jones: No Murdock / WSJ Deal

The Dow Jones has just annouced that there's no deal for Rupert Murdock's News Corporation to buy Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. Stay tuned.

Here's the details from Reuters:

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has not yet reached a deal to buy Dow Jones & Co. Inc. and discussions continue, representatives for Dow Jones and its controlling Bancroft family said on Friday.

Talks are continuing over such issues as price, two sources familiar with the matter also said on Friday.

Dow Jones shares gained 1.6 percent to $58.79 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The comments on Friday countered a report in London's The Business weekly magazine that said the two sides have completed talks and were expected to announce a deal next week, citing unnamed sources acting for the Dow Jones board.

The report also said Dow Jones had accepted Murdoch's original offer of $60 per share for the company. Investors and analysts have speculated Murdoch might have to raise his bid by a few dollars per share to clinch a deal.

A Dow Jones spokesman said the report was incorrect. A News Corp. spokesman was not immediately available.

Murdoch made an unsolicited $5 billion offer to buy the publisher of The Wall Street Journal newspaper. The offer valued Dow Jones at a 65 percent premium to its stock price before the bid was disclosed publicly in May.

"There is no change in the status of the discussions currently under way," a spokesman for the Bancrofts said. "News Corp. is continuing to conduct due diligence and the negotiations are not complete."

Some three dozen Bancroft family members control Dow Jones through a combined ownership of 64 percent of voting shares.

Murdoch and the Dow Jones board last week reached a tentative agreement on creating an independent board to oversee the editorial integrity of the Journal and other Dow Jones operations, an element key to securing the Bancrofts' approval.

The board's members would have the power to approve or veto editor candidates selected by News Corp., sources familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time.

It would comprise members chosen jointly by News Corp., Dow Jones and the Bancroft family.

Separately, Murdoch told Reuters in Warsaw last week that an agreement with the Bancrofts would come within two or three weeks, "or not at all," adding that he had no plans to boost his bid price.

A deal for Dow Jones and the Journal, viewed as one of the world's most reputable newspapers, would help anchor News Corp.'s soon to be launched Fox Business Channel, a cable news network rival to General Electric's CNBC.

News Corp., founded from a pair of newspapers in Australia, now owns close to 120 newspapers including the Times and The Sun in Britain, the Australian in Australia and the New York Post in the United States.

News Corp. shares fell 9 cents to $21.55.

(Additional reporting by Michele Gershberg and Kenneth Li)

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