Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Dow and Murdoch

Rupe Murdoch's attempt to buy the Wall Street Journal is being frustrated by the Bancroft family's disinterest and because they hold the controlling shares of Dow Jones nothing will happen unless they get interested. They are so disinterested that the board has not even responded to Murdoch's $60 per share or $5 billion. The Ottaway family, with 6.2%, has stated that such a purchase would "damage" the Dow Jones name. Bloomberg , who competes with Dow Jones, while noting the "frustration," seems to believe that Murdoch will stick with his bid, for awhile at least.

Considering the nearly knee jerk conservatism of the WSJ's editorial board this would seem to be a blunt statement regarding News Corp journalism. There is little to be done about Rupe's junk, the Republicans let him in, he's here, he owes them, and he's got bucks.

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