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Letter to the editor

Board okays Dow Jones sale, but it's not over yet

It's up to the family whether to trust the Wall Street Journal to a media mogul.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 18, 2007

NEW YORK - Media baron Rupert Murdoch cleared another hurdle on his way to owning the Wall Street Journal late Tuesday when the board of Dow Jones & Co., the Journal's parent company, said it would sign off on a sale to Murdoch's News Corp. for $5-billion.

Dow Jones said in a statement that its board was prepared to recommend a proposal for News Corp. to acquire Dow Jones for $60 in cash, the price Murdoch has proposed.

However, the deal has yet to overcome its largest obstacle - approval by the mercurial Bancroft family, which has 64 percent of Dow Jones' shareholder vote through a special class of stock. The family initially rebuffed Murdoch's offer in early May, only to reconsider later.

The family has controlled the storied newspaper publisher for more than a century and views it as a public trust. It has insisted on, and received, a commitment to create an oversight board that must approve the hiring or firing of top editors at the Journal.

With board approval now cleared, the deal will next be presented to family members, most likely on Monday, and they will have several days to consider it. The family, which has some three dozen adult members spread across the country, has been deeply divided over whether to sell to Murdoch.

Several key family members have sought alternatives to an acquisition by the media baron, but so far no serious contenders have emerged.

Christopher Bancroft, a Dow Jones director, has reached out to major stockholders to buy enough shares of Dow Jones to block a sale, and another Dow Jones director and Bancroft family representative, Leslie Hill, has been trying to find other buyers, the Journal has reported.

Murdoch has long wanted to own the Journal, along with its clout on Wall Street and a history of outstanding journalism. Murdoch has said he would invest in the Journal's online and overseas operations, and help build a business-themed cable news channel that would rival General Electric Co.'s highly profitable CNBC network.

A union of Journal reporters and other Dow Jones employees has objected to Murdoch's bid, saying he would downgrade news coverage and interfere with newsroom independence for his own business interests.

[Last modified July 18, 2007, 01:10:49]