The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has secured the votes necessary to purchase Dow Jones & Co., Inc. which includes The Wall Street Journal itself. The win comes after a lengthy proxy battle in which the Bancrofts––the family that has acted as stewards of the company from afar for more than a century––resisted a very generous overture from Murdoch.
The Australian media tycoon eventually won the day by convincing a trust holding 9.1% of the Bancroft voting shares (the Bancroft's own 64% of Dow Jones voting shares) to support his bid. The Journal reports that this brings the total of voting shares held by the Bancrofts and in support of the deal to 38%. Combined with the 29% of voting shares held by the general public, who are expected to vote largely for approval, Murdoch appears to have a comfortable margin of victory.
Media columnist David Carr wrote that he expected Murdoch to eventually emerge triumphant back in May, citing the mogul's long history of sweet-talking owners of acquisition targets while dangling huge sums of money in front of them. The News Corp. purchase will likely come as a bitter disappointment to shareholders like the Ottaway family, who weren't just opposed to the deal, but seemed personally disdainful of Murdoch himself.
The New York Times notes the acquisition will add some prestige to the October launch of News Corp.'s Fox Business Channel. Dow Jones properties include a newswire service and other financial information providers like MarketWatch. Analysts expect that Murdoch will sell off the number of smaller newspapers Dow Jones currently owns, mostly in New England and New York.
The gaining of the Denver bloc of voting shares arrived after a taut game of brinksmanship by Murdoch and current shareholders. As a 5 p.m. deadline passed yesterday, Murdoch threatened to pull his bid entirely if he did not receive some support from the Bancrofts (some family members were holding out for an even higher price for their stakes in the company).
Now, Murdoch says he will keep out of WSJ editors' way and doesn't want to wreck the paper. But he does have the habit of eventually being involved on editorial. We're expecting some corporate synergy in the form of more analysis of American Idol winners (and losers) market success, Wall Street babes to be on page 3, and Steve Dunleavy to join the editorial board.
