Murdoch finally closes in on Dow Jones: report

The Business magazine today reports that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has finally clinched its $5bn deal to buy financial publishing powerhouse Dow Jones, and that a deal is expected to be announced next week.

Apparently, younger members of the Bancroft family -- which controls Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal -- had been pressuring the family to accept the offer, a 67% premium on the company's stock price when the offer was made in April, because they didn't think a comparable bid was likely.

The deal reportedly includes a legally-binding contract that will ensure the editorial independence of the WSJ. News Corp. can still hire and fire the top editors and publishers, but a five-member committee will be allowed to veto those decisions.


In what may be a very telling anecdote, though, the story points out that a similar (but not as strong) agreement had been made when Murdoch bought the Times and Sunday Times in 1981. A UK lawmaker refers to that agreement now as a 'fig leaf' used to get the deal approaved by antitrust regulators in the UK.

The scoop has some News Corp. pedigree behind it: it was co-written by Andrew Neil and James Forsyth. In addition to Neal's affiliation with The Business (he is editor-in-chief of Press Holdings, which owns The Business and The Spectator), he is a broadcaster who also once was very much also a part of the News Corp. stable, editing the Sunday Times for 11 years.

Here's a link to the original story.