USA: Rupert Murdoch set to add Wall Street Journal to media empire
- 00:00:10
- ITN Source
USA: Rupert Murdoch set to add Wall Street Journal to media empire
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch looks set to take control of the Wall Street Journal in a deal worth 5 billion U.S. dollars. Rupert Murdoch is set to achieve his decades-long dream of running the venerable Wall Street Journal after Dow Jones & Co Inc.'s board agreed to News Corp's 5 billion U.S. dollars buyout bid on Tuesday (July 31). The board decided to accept the offer at a meeting Tuesday evening, according to a source familiar with the matter, shortly after News Corp.'s board approved the deal. The 76-year-old media mogul spent the past three months courting the Bancroft family, which has controlled Dow Jones for more than a century. The Journal and other Dow Jones properties add to Murdoch's sprawling media empire -- from the Fox television stations and MySpace online social network to the Times of London and New York Post -- and would aid the launch of a Fox business channel later this year. The family initially rejected Murdoch's bid over fears that he would tarnish the Journal's image and use Dow Jones's news operations to further his business interests. Many Journal reporters, and Dow Jones employees, also opposed the deal and sought to attract other buyers. In the end, his 60 U.S. dollars-per-share offer proved too attractive for many family members to resist, and it all but eliminated the possibility of competing offers. The board meetings came after members of the Bancroft family holding about 38 percent of Dow Jones' voting shares signaled that they favoured the deal, the source said. That level of support represents more than half of the 64 percent voting shares held by the family. Analysts say the deal represents a triumph for Rupert Murdoch. "He's coveted the Wall Street Journal for years. Eleven years ago and then again about nine years ago he made overtures to the Dow Jones board and was rebuffed. This is the capstone of his career as the number one media mogul in the world right now and it's something he has wanted to do for a very long time," said Porter Bibb, media analyst at media Tech Capital Partners. Dow Jones shareholders still must approve the buyout, an outcome that analysts have said is all but guaranteed, given the 65 percent premium Murdoch offered.
ITN Source | August 1, 2007
