Dow Jones, blah blah. Here’s your mediocre update: The current agreement in place between News Corp. and Dow Jones would allow Rupert Murdoch’s company full power in hiring and firing top editors, which is, like, not what the Bancroft family wanted at all.
Though given the soundbite Time’s Eric Pooley is running in its EXCLUSIVE!!, it makes sense Rupert never planned on having it any other way: “They’re taking five billion dollars out of me and want to keep control in an industry in crisis! They can’t sell their company and still control it ??? that’s not how it works. I’m sorry!”
Oh, sure, there’s some other stuff in there too, like how he doesn’t muddle with his newspapers’ editorial because he only hires people who agree with him, and a one-liner about giving the Journal topless Page 3 girls … with MBAs.
Ugh, that Dow Jones thing is still going on? This thing is lasting longer than that “men wearing mandals” scare back in ‘02. So here’s what you need to know so you can resume being utterly disinterested: The Dow Jones board of directors has taken over negotiation talks with Rupert Murdoch and those other suiters, instead of letting the Bancroft family manage everything. And also, MySpace founder Brad Greenspan says he wants Dow Jones and will match News Corp.’s $60 per share offer.
How Brad is gonna do that – he only made $580 million off the sale of MySpace parent Intermix to Rupert, and, you know, attorney and banking fees aren’t what they used to be – sounds very ambitious (slash unlikely) … but you can read the fine print on his blog!
From June 6’s Wall Street Journal:
WSJ: What are you looking for [in choosing Dow Jones board members]?
Mr. Murdoch: People with absolutely no business connections to me nor the family. The family’s selling out. They can’t sell it and keep it. I have all the respect in the world for them, but you can’t have it both ways. I can’t put down $5 billion of my shareholders’ money and not be able to run the business. That doesn’t mean changing the editorial. We have no plans to change anything in the editorial.
From today’s Financial Times:
The Bancroft family was on Tuesday night putting finishing touches to a series of proposals designed to guard the editorial independence of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal newspaper should they agree to sell the company they control to Rupert Murdoch???s News Corp.
Oh good, so they’re both in agreement then. Nothing can go wrong!
Oh good! In the weeks since Rupert Murdoch bid billions for Dow Jones, we’re now on to the “considering” phase. In Andrew Sorkin and Richard Perez-Pena’s status update this morning, the word “consider” (or a variant) is used, between the headline and the photo caption and the actual body of the story, five times. Just to make sure you’re aware that the Bancroft family is thinking hard about whether to accept News Corp.’s takeover play.
Or, at least, the Bancrofts are willing to meet – physically, in person – to discuss. All caught up?