USA: Wall Street Journal may go to Murdoch after all
In a surprising turn of events, the family that owns Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, is now willing to negotiate media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's takeover offer after all. Murdoch's global media empire, News Corp, wants to acquire the Dow Jones company for $5 billion.
Surprisingly, the family that owns the Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones is now prepared to negotiate the takeover bid from media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch's global media empire News Corp wants to take over the Down Jones Group for five billion dollars. According to an SDA report, the Bancroft family said it wanted to hold direct talks with News Corp. The family controls the Dow Jones Group with a stake of just under 65 percent and has come to the conclusion that the company would be better positioned in combination or in cooperation with other organizations in view of the business environment. Until now, it had always rejected a sale to Murdoch, but Murdoch's offer of 60 dollars per share is attractive: compared to the share price before the offer was announced, this is a premium of 67 percent. The company now wants to hold talks with Murdoch to determine whether the editorial independence, integrity and journalistic freedom of Dow Jones could be safeguarded in the event of a merger. Murdoch had assured this, but critics doubt it.
