Investor Burkle eyes bid for Dow Jones: union

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle has joined Dow Jones & Co. Inc. DJ.N employees to try to counter a $5 billion bid for the company from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. NWSa.N, a union official said on Tuesday.

Burkle told the union he is interested in working together to formulate an offer, said Steven Yount, a representative for the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees (IAPE), which represents 2,000 Dow Jones workers.

The IAPE said on Monday it would search for other bidders, as members of Dow Jones' controlling Bancroft family met for the first time with Murdoch to entertain a possible deal.

The union has also approached Warren Buffett on a potential counter-offer for the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, but has not received a response yet, Yount said.

Buffett said last month it was "very, very unlikely" that he would bid for Dow Jones, either as a personal investment or together with his company Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), citing a high bid already on the table from Murdoch.

Dow Jones shares rose to a fresh six-year high of $61.62 following the union comments, after trading as low as $59.85 earlier in the session. The stock was at $60.57 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, hovering above News Corp's bid of $60 per share.

This is the third time in the past year that Burkle has expressed interest in a newspaper publisher.

He and another Los Angeles billionaire, Eli Broad, mounted an unsuccessful bid for Tribune Co. TRB.N earlier this year. In 2006, Burkle's investment firm, Yucaipa Cos., and the Newspaper Guild also bid unsuccessfully for a dozen Knight Ridder daily papers that McClatchy Co. (MNI.N) was selling.

Burkle was not immediately available for comment.

Buffett received a letter from the union on Tuesday but was not immediately available for comment, his assistant Debbie Bosanek said.

Longtime newspaper analyst Miles Groves of MG Strategic Research said Murdoch could be in a better position to handle pressure bearing down on newspapers, which are losing advertising revenues to the Internet and other new media.

"They'll eventually face pressure that someone like Murdoch can handle better," he said. "I'm a little skeptical of guild efforts to buy media properties in order to manage the future better."

The IAPE, which believes Murdoch will undermine Dow Jones' journalistic reputation, is trying to build interest among six to 10 other potential bidders, Yount said. He would not name anyone beside Buffett and Burkle.

"As much as we appreciate the interest of Ron Burkle, we will continue to reach out to others who are interested in joining together with IAPE in putting together a proposal," Yount said.

A Dow Jones spokeswoman and a Bancroft family representative declined to comment.