News Corp makes move in Wall Street Journal

The US publisher of the The Wall Street Journal today said it had received a preliminary takeover approach from Rupert Murdoch’s media company News Corporation.

Dow Jones confirmed it had received an unsolicited bid proposal of 60 US dollars a share (£30) from the owner of The Sun and The Times valuing the firm at around 5 billion US dollars (£2.5bn).

Dow Jones, which is controlled by the Bancroft family through a special class of shares and cannot be taken over without their consent, said in a statement it was evaluating the proposal but stressed there was no assurance that it would lead to a transaction.

Shares in Dow Jones surged by more than 50% in the US before they were suspended from trading prior to the announcement.

The news had a ripple effect across the media industry both in the US and the UK, with shares in Financial Times owner Pearson up by almost 5% and Reuters more than 3% higher.

News Corp, which owns the New York Post, is reported to have been looking at expanding its presence in business media. In addition to its newspapers, the group also owns the Fox broadcast network, MySpace, the Twentieth Century Fox studio and holdings in satellite broadcasters in Europe and Asia.

As well as the WSJ, Dow Jones publishes Dow Jones newswires and a group of community newspapers in the US.

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