News Corp. board OKs deal to buy Dow Jones
NEW YORK -- Rupert Murdoch edged closer to his goal of owning Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. as the board of his News Corp. media conglomerate signed off on the $5 billion deal, a person with knowledge of the matter said late Tuesday.
The board of Dow Jones & Co. was meeting Tuesday evening to give final consideration to the deal, but there was no word on a decision yet, and a company spokeswoman declined to comment.
A person familiar with the situation said News Corp.'s board signed off on the deal Tuesday, but this person asked for anonymity because the vote had not yet been made public.
If he succeeds, Murdoch would gain one of the great trophies of U.S. journalism and a newspaper that is considered required daily reading among the business and power elite.
News Corp. had said it would only agree to move ahead if the deal had sufficient support from Dow Jones' controlling shareholders, the Bancroft family.
The Journal reported on its Web site Tuesday a key Bancroft family trust had reversed itself and decided to support the deal, meaning that votes representing about 37 percent of Dow Jones' shareholder vote were now in favor of selling to Murdoch.
Combined with the 29 percent of Dow Jones shares that are publicly held and very likely to support Murdoch, the deal appeared to have critical mass.
Murdoch has spent a lifetime building a global media empire.
From a pair of inherited newspapers in Australia, he built the world's most far-flung and diverse empire of nearly 120 newspapers, film studios, television networks and Internet properties, stirring controversy with his brash, populist journalism, but always seizing the chance to expand.
His approach has been to find value in overlooked properties, often taking big risks to rebuild or restructure neglected media companies in novel ways.
Murdoch wants to propel the Journal's brand across his media outlets, using it to fuel News Corp.'s upcoming Fox Business Channel, or finding fresh audiences on its MySpace online social network and mobile media ventures.