Dow Jones says News Corp. deal not yet reached
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. NWSa.N has not yet reached an agreement to buy Dow Jones & Co. Inc.DJ.N, the company and its controlling Bancroft family said on Friday, countering a media report the two sides had completed their talks.
London's The Business magazine said on Friday that Dow Jones had accepted Murdoch's original offer of $60 per share and that a deal was expected to be announced next week, citing unnamed sources acting for the Dow Jones board.
A News Corp. spokesman said "the company is unaware of the truth or otherwise of the report in the British magazine The Business."
Dow Jones said the report about an agreement in principle was incorrect, while sources familiar with the matter said the two sides were still discussing open issues, including price.
Investors and analysts had speculated Murdoch might have to raise his bid by a few dollars per share to clinch a deal.
"There is no change in the status of the discussions currently under way," a spokesman for the Bancrofts said. "News Corp. is continuing to conduct due diligence and the negotiations are not complete."
Dow Jones shares gained 2 percent to $58.99 on the New York Stock Exchange. News Corp. Class A shares slipped 8 cents to $21.56.
UNSOLICITED OFFER
Murdoch made an unsolicited $5 billion offer to buy the publisher of The Wall Street Journal newspaper. The offer valued Dow Jones at a 65 percent premium to its stock price before the bid was disclosed publicly in May.
A deal for Dow Jones and the Journal, viewed as one of the world's most reputable newspapers, would help anchor News Corp.'s soon-to-be-launched Fox Business Channel, a cable news network rival to General Electric's (GE.N) CNBC.
Some three dozen Bancroft family members control Dow Jones through a combined ownership of 64 percent of voting shares.
Murdoch and the Dow Jones board last week reached a tentative agreement on creating an independent board to oversee the editorial integrity of the Journal and other Dow Jones operations, an element key to securing the Bancrofts' approval.
The board's members would have the power to approve or veto editor candidates selected by News Corp., sources familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time.
It would comprise members chosen jointly by News Corp., Dow Jones and the Bancroft family.
Separately, Murdoch told Reuters in Warsaw last week that an agreement with the Bancrofts would come within two or three weeks, "or not at all," adding that he had no plans to boost his bid price. Continued...
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