Pearson seeking partners for Dow Jones bid: report

16 June 2007

Mumbai: Pearson Plc., publisher of the Financial Times, is seeking partners for a possible bid for Dow Jones & Co. Inc., owner of The Wall Street Journal.

Pearson, based in the United Kingdom, has approached media company Hearst Corp. as well as General Electric Co., which owns business news channel CNBC, about a possible joint offer, the Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Dow Jones''s controlling shareholders, the Bancroft family, are considering a $5 billion buyout bid from Rupert Murdoch''s News Corp.

The Bancroft family met Murdoch earlier this month, but some members have opposed his bid because they fear he would not preserve the editorial independence of Dow Jones''s news operations.

That may make an offer from Pearson more attractive to the Bancrofts, sourcs said.

Pearson is the world''s largest educational publisher. It publishes school textbooks, the Financial Times and Les Echos newspapers and general-interest books at its Penguin unit.

The Financial Times competes with the Wall Street Journal, although the paper, which has a stronghold in Europe, has far fewer US readers than the New York-based Journal.

Another potential bidder for Dow Jones is Brian Tierney, who led an investor group to buy The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. Tierney has said he would be interested in working with partners on a bid.

The company, headed by Texas-born chief executive Marjorie Scardino, has been particularly active on the acquisition front recently, although its deals have centered on strengthening its hand in education publishing businesses.

Murdoch''s News Corp., a vast global media conglomerate that includes the Fox broadcast network, MySpace, the New York Post and many newspapers in the U.K. and Australia, has offered $60 a share for Dow Jones, well above the mid-$30s range the stock had been trading at before the offer become public. Many analysts think News Corp.''s offer is too high to be countered.

Dow Jones'' controlling shareholders, the Bancroft family, initially rebuffed Murdoch''s approach but then agreed to meet him to discuss their concerns that the Journal remain editorially independent.

Murdoch''s News Corp. can easily afford the $5 billion price he has offered for Dow Jones and had more than $7.3 billion in cash on hand as of end-March.