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Dow Jones said yesterday that its board was prepared to recommend shareholders accept a US$5 billion ($6.3 billion) buyout offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, leaving the fate of the company in the hands of its controlling family.
Under the terms of the agreement, News Corp would buy all outstanding shares of Dow Jones' common and Class B stock for US$60 per share in cash, Dow Jones said .
Dow Jones publishes the Wall Street Journal, the Barron's investor newspaper, the MarketWatch.com financial news website, and owns Dow Jones Newswires.
The decision came after the Dow Jones board met for several hours yesterday. The board did not reach a unanimous decision, but a "strong majority" voted to recommend approving the deal, a source said.
The deal would allow a limited number of Dow Jones stockholders the choice of receiving shares in a News subsidiary that would hold Dow Jones.
Bancroft family members, who control 64 per cent of Dow Jones' voting shares, were evaluating the offer, Dow Jones said. Two of the Dow Jones board's 16 directors abstained from the vote, according to The Wall Street Journal. Board members Leslie Hill and Dieter von Holtzbrinck chose not to vote, while Christopher Bancroft left the meeting early, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources.
Christopher Bancroft has been seeking to buy up Dow Jones Class B "super-voting" shares in a bid to block Murdoch's offer.
Internet hotshot Brad Greenspan, who offered to buy a 25 per cent stake in Dow Jones, said before the board's decision that he remained "engaged in the process".
- REUTERS
