Dow Jones and Murdoch Said to Move Close to Deal

DOW JONES AND MURDOCH SAID TO MOVE CLOSE TO DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Perez-Pena and Richard Siklos]
Rupert Murdoch reportedly moved a major step closer to achieving his long-standing aim of acquiring The Wall Street Journal when Dow Jones & Company tentatively agreed to be acquired by Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation yesterday. But the deal still must win the approval of the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of the company’s voting stock and has balked so far at selling to Mr. Murdoch, with some family members instead searching for another buyer. According to a report on The Journal’s Web site, representatives of Dow Jones accepted Mr. Murdoch’s $60-a-share bid, which values the company at $5 billion. The News Corporation and Dow Jones declined to comment. The agreement was expected to be put to the board tonight, and would cap a three-month effort by Mr. Murdoch to add Dow Jones to his global media empire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/business/media/17dow.html
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