News Corp. Bid for Dow Jones Succeeds, Sources Say

July 31, 2007— -- The Bancroft family has decided to sell Dow Jones, the media company that it has owned for 105 years, according to the Wall Street Journal's Web site.

The Journal, Dow Jones flagship paper, reported that family members who control 37.4 percent of Dow Jones shares, or more than half the family's voting stake, have decided to sell the company to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

News Corp.'s board approved a deal late Tuesday, as did Dow Jones directors, sources told The Associated Press.

"On the one hand it is quite sad, but on the other it was the only reasonable thing to do," Elisabeth Goth Chelberg, a Bancroft family member who unsuccessfully tried a decade ago to get the family more involved in management, told the Journal. "Now I look forward to a better Dow Jones. It's going to have more money and a world presence and all of the things that it could have and should have had but didn't."

Leslie Hill, a Dow Jones board member who opposed the sale, resigned from her post, the Journal's Web site reported. "[I]t is not enough to outweigh the potential ramifications of the loss of an independent global news organization with unmatched credibility and integrity," she said of the deal, according to the newspaper.

The Bancroft family has been divided for months over the $5 billion sale. The family was originally expected to vote on the proposed sale by 5 p.m. Monday, but that deadline came and went. While enough members appeared to support the deal, news reports surfaced saying that family members and Murdoch were debating whether News Corp. would cover the $30 million in legal fees that Bancroft family members had incurred while debating a sale.

Dow Jones and News Corp. haven't yet made a formal announcement.

Shares of Dow Jones closed up $5.82 to $57.38, just short of the $60-a-share offer Murdoch has made. Before Murdoch made his bid on May 1, shares of Dow Jones were trading in the $30 range.

Owning Dow Jones will vastly expand Murdoch's media empire, which includes Fox News, the New York Post and the Times of London.

Murdoch is eager to own the Journal brand, which he will likely use after he launches a new business television network scheduled to go on the air in October. The operation, now named Fox Business Network, would likely become The Wall Street Journal Channel and could become a major ratings competitor with the business channel CNBC.

Dow Jones also has something else Murdoch wants -- online news outlets that users are willing to pay to gain access to.