Dow Jones and News Corp. agreed
News Corp. Rupert
Murdoch and Dow Jones executives reached a preliminary agreement to sell Dow Jones for $ 5
billion today an agreement on the transaction will be introduced by members of the
Bancroft family who control Dow Jones.
On Monday
held another round of talks, in which the part of Dow Jones attended, among others, CEO
Richard Zannino, advisors, media companies and two independent board member. The parties
agreed to a deal on terms that Murdoch announced in April. Despite the
pressure from the representatives of Dow Jones, Murdoch did not raise the bid price of $
60 per share, which is 67%-ing a prize to the price of Dow Jones shares before the release
of information about the proposal News Corp. However,
Murdock does not exclude the possibility of inclusion in the board of directors of News
Corp. Paul Steygera, chief editor of The Wall
Street Journal. The fact it
took Murdoch offers Dow Jones regarding the independence of editorial policy WSJ, not
reported.
Today the
meeting should involve members of the Bancroft family, which owns 64% of the voting shares
of Dow Jones. They will be
presented the details of the agreement and, as expected, given a few days to decide. Many family
members still object to the sale of Dow Jones Murdoch, and his reluctance to raise the
price could become for them an additional argument against the transaction. Some members
of the family in recent weeks as their attempts to find an alternative buyer for Dow
Jones, but no agreements had been reached.
Yesterday at
the auction in New York, shares of Dow Jones fell $ 0.54 to $ 56.95.
Dow
Jones, in addition to its main publication, WSJ, owned by News Agency of Dow Jones
Newswires, an investment newsletter Barron's, the magazine SmartMoney (produced in
conjunction with the publishing house of Hearst), a family of regional newspapers Ottaway,
a provider of stock indexes Dow Jones.