Murdoch Wins Enough Votes to Seal Journal Deal
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
NEW YORK (AP) – Rupert Murdoch’s bid for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. has won enough support from the company’s controlling shareholders to ensure its acceptance, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
The Journal said, quoting unnamed people familiar with the situation, that Bancroft family members representing 32 percent of the company’s vote had agreed to the deal. A family spokesman declined to comment.
Mr.. Murdoch’s News Corp. must still decide whether it is comfortable with that level of support in order to proceed. With some public shareholders likely to abstain, News Corp. wants a solid majority of votes committed to the deal.
Dow Jones shares were already sharply higher Tuesday on hopes that a deal was close, and were getting closer and closer to Murdoch’s offering price of $60 a share, indicating growing confidence the deal will go through. In early afternoon trading, Dow Jones stock rose $5.79 or 11.2 percent at $57.35.
