August 1st, 2007
Done deal: News Corp. lands Dow Jones, Negroponte on WSJ edit board
News Corp. has won Dow Jones and Rupert Murdoch got his big catch–The Wall Street Journal.
The companies announced that 37 percent of the Bancroft family voted for the deal. Combined with other shareholders–who would possibly turn down $60 a share?–the deal is done.
There was little new information in the announcement. The price was $5.6 billion, or $60 a share. Now Rupe can use the Journal to squash CNBC.
One wrinkle that stuck out: The Dow board to ensure Journal editorial independence includes Nicholas Negroponte. So now he does OLPC and watches over a journalism institution. Interesting stuff.
The editorial independence board includes Louis Boccardi, Thomas Bray, Jennifer Dunn, Jack Fuller and Nicholas Negroponte.
As noted earlier this saga has dragged on way too long to keep anyone not working at Dow Jones interested. Here are some key reads:
- Press release announcing the deal
- Can Murdoch charge for WSJ.com and give it away too? My answer: Sure. It’s the same model ESPN.com has. And NY Times is trying it too.
- WSJ coverage of itself.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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