The board of Dow Jones has taken control of negotiations over the merger option of its flagship publication the Wall Street journal. Board replaced the company’s dominant Bancroft family, which owns more than 64% of the voting shares in the parent of The Wall Street Journal.
The Dow Jones board, which will conduct the talks, is chaired by Peter McPherson - the president of Michigan State University. It contains four members affiliated with the Bancrofts. Independent directors include the Coca-Cola Enterprises boss, John Brock, and the head of Wal-Mart’s US operations, Eduardo Castro-Wright will oversee the possibility of the merger.
While overseeing the deal, board will keep appropriate provisions with respect to journalistic and editorial independence and integrity.
Earlier media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s had offered $5 billion for the wall street journal and the row of acquisition started. Murdoch offer was the much higher than its market value, but shareholders turned News Corp’s offer down amid the concern of wall street journal’s integrity and its journalist freedom on stake.
Even controller and regulator of the newspaper, Bancroft family refused to meet Murdoch. Later they meets Murdoch, but nothing came out. Journal union also has shown their reluctance to merger with the News Corp.
Few voices emerged for the wall street journal, but nothing authenticated appear. In the fray of wall street journal, later MySpace founder Brad Greenspan entered with a partial offer for Dow Jones. He said that he’d match the News Corp. CEO’s $60-a-share offer. Greenspan offered that he can pay $1.25 billion for 25 percent of its shares. He’d fill two added seats on the board, subject to its approval of the candidates.
Via: usatoday
Comments
‘Money makes the mare go’ for in 21st Century, values, ethics and the Wall Street Journal can be traded bought and sold.
The prestigious journal was an institution of the last century, but this is a century of Media Moguls who want the world to have only that information which they approve off.
Robert Murdoch’s unsolicited bid for Dow Jones, the publishers of Wall Street Journal has not shocked but rocked the financial news world. Now there are more than one player in the fray for the reputation of the journal.
The trust the world put in the journal is up for auction, be it Murdoch, General Electric or MySpace. Does it matter!