Friday is when Rupert Murdoch can expect a response for his unsolicited $5 billion offer for Dow Jones. But things aren’t looking good for ole’ Rupe. The Bancroft family, which owns the Wall Street Journal publisher, wasn’t exactly overjoyed with the announcement. And who was superbly underhwhelmed? The company’s newspaper guild, who are wholly opposed to any takeover attempt from someone who “has shown a willingness to crush quality and independence.”
The Bancroft family, which owns the controlling stake in Dow Jones, issued this statement:
Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) said that a director who is a representative of the Bancroft family, Michael B. Elefante, has informed the Dow Jones Board of Directors that ???members of the family and the trustees of trusts for their benefit have advised him that they will vote shares constituting slightly more than 50% of the outstanding voting power of Dow Jones as of April 30th excluding options against the proposal submitted by News Corporation to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Dow Jones common stock and Class B common stock for $60.00 per share.???
Dow Jones said its Board would factor this information into its evaluation.
While Dow Jones’ newspaper union said, in part:
The staff, from top to bottom, opposes a Rupert Murdoch takeover of Dow Jones & Co. Since the early part of the twentieth century, the Bancroft family has stood up for the independence and quality of The Wall Street Journal and has built it into one of the world’s great newspapers.
Mr. Murdoch has shown a willingness to crush quality and independence, and there is no reason to think he would handle Dow Jones or The Journal any differently. Despite our differences of opinion with current management, we strongly encourage the Bancrofts to continue to stand up for the institution’s independence, and to walk away from this offer.
Moreover, the massive premium Mr. Murdoch is offering suggests only one recourse to make the acquisition profitable: gutting the enterprise and slashing the staff that make it the leading financial news organization.
Well, not everybody will be let go. Staffers with pretty faces that’ll be well-suited for the Fox Business Channel could potentially start earning more!
Earlier, we showed you how Dina McGreevey (former wife/beard of ex Jersey gov, Jim McGreevey) parlayed her real-life Brokeback Mountain tale of woe into a book deal and an appearance on Oprah. And now, we hear Dina’s already thinking television movie.
According to the NYDN, Nicole Kidman would be Dina’s first choice (although “she’s too tall!”), though the bubbling divorcée would also settle for Academy Award winner, Reese Witherspoon.
Unfortunately for Dina, Oscar winners tend to tear clear of the “Lifetime Original Movie” genre.
However, we do look forward to the inevitable (completely fictional!) Law & Order ripoff, and—subsequently—the movie of the week, where the part of Dina Matos McGreevey will be played by a postpartum Tori Spelling.
just ’cause!
In today’s all-television installment of Whodunit, we explore the deep, dark recesses of SNL, contemplate the hidden meaning of “boob tube” and find out there is such a thing as too much gym.
First up, the NYDN has us wondering which “smoking hot TV actress” got her big break by bedding “one of the least attractive SNL cast members” while still in college. And as try to figure out which NBC mainstays we’d least want to see naked (Horatio Sanz? Rob Schneider? Barack wannabe, Kenan Thompson?) we shift our attention to the brainteasers of the E! Online variety.
Here, we learn about the vivacious actress on a hit television show who shunned Debra Messing’s brave example and underwent a breast enhancement…at her boyfriend’s request. Then we try to unmask the hard-bodied hothead, who was spotted admiring his own reflection in no less than three different gym mirrors.
with links and things. here’s a link to stereohyped.
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