China in auto power play
It might not shake up the industry just yet, but China's interest in Volvo and Saab is the start of something big in global autos, writes columnist Wei Gu. Commentary
Dow Jones shareholders approve News Corp buyout
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dow Jones & Co Inc DJ.N shareholders voted to approve a $5.6 billion buyout by News Corp NWSa.N on Thursday, giving Rupert Murdoch control of one of the world's most influential newspapers, the Wall Street Journal.
Shareholders controlling 60.27 percent of Dow Jones' voting power approved the deal, priced at $60 per share.
Moments after the deal closed, Murdoch said on Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto" show that a free Wall Street Journal Web site could boost its current viewership from 1 million paid subscribers up to 20 million global visitors as early as next year.
"There will be more than enough advertising to make up" a loss of subscription fees to WSJ.com, he said. "It might take a year to get there. But it will get there."
The purchase cements his position as gatekeeper of media outlets spanning from his hometown in Australia to London to New York.
"Our aim is pretty simple," Murdoch told Wall Street Journal newsroom staffers, according to a transcript of his speech. "We have to entertain, inform, enrich all our readers in their lives and in their businesses. We must be the preeminent source of financial information and comment in the world."
To trumpet his victory, News Corp plans a $2 million marketing campaign including ads in Friday papers.
According to a report in Fortune magazine's Web site, the Financial Times and China Daily refused to run the ads without changes that Murdoch was unwilling to make.
"I think they're a little sensitive," Murdoch told Cavuto, responding to a question about the FT's decision. "If I was them, I would've taken the money."
Ahead of the deal's closing, Murdoch restructured his global operations, installing his son, BSkyB (BSY.L) Chief Executive James Murdoch, as chairman and CEO of News Corp's European and Asian operations.
News Corp veteran Les Hinton will become Dow Jones' new CEO.
Murdoch loyalist Robert Thomson, editor of the Times of London newspaper, was also appointed publisher of the Wall Street Journal.
The 76-year-old Murdoch plans to use Dow Jones as a linchpin in a global business news media and data empire.
Versions of News Corp's cable business news television channel Fox Business Network are also expected to be launched in other regions in coming years.
(Reporting by Kenneth Li, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Richard Chang)
