GE and Pearson back off from Dow Jones deal
By Our Corporate Bureau | 22 May 2007
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New York: General Electric Co said Thursday it had abandoned talks with the UK-based Financial Times' publisher Pearson PLC about a possible bid for Dow Jones & Co, removing a potential rival to News Corp's rival $5 billion offer for the financial news publisher.
GE said it and London-based Pearson had held exploratory talks about combining GE's CNBC business news cable channel, Pearson's Financial Times newspaper and Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's and Dow Jones Newswires.
If Murdoch wrests control of Dow Jones, it could help him launch a financial cable news channel in competition with NBC Universal's CNBC.
