Rupert Murdoch is looking to add The Wall Street Journal to his newspaper empire, with News Corp. submitting a $5 billion cash bid for Dow Jones, publisher of the WSJ.
Acquiring the resources of Dow Jones could also serve Murdoch and News Corp. in their move to launch a business-network spinoff of Fox News Channel sometime during the fourth quarter of this year.
Dow Jones said it received the proposal from News Corp., which offered to buy the company for $60 per share.
“The board of directors and members and trustees of the Bancroft family, who hold shares representing a majority of the company’s voting power, are evaluating the proposal. There can be no assurance that this evaluation will lead to any transaction,” Dow Jones said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
Shares in Dow Jones jumped more than 50% on the news, trading at $54.75 each by 1 p.m. (EST) Tuesday, up $18.42 per share. News Corp. stock was trading at $23.37 per share at 1 p.m. Tuesday, down 63 cents, or 2.62%.
Dow Jones and the WSJ would be a venerable addition to Murdoch’s vast newspaper empire. In addition to the New York Post, his company publishes the top newspapers in Australia and the United Kingdom, including The Sun,News of the World and The Sunday Times in the United Kingdom and TheDaily Telegraph, The Australian and The Courier-Mail in Australia.
