Dow Jones Sold to Murdoch?

Do we belive The Business magazine when it says that the Dow Jones & Co. board have finally come to an agreement on all of the terms of this much-discussed-but-not-yet-consummated $5 billion deal? This at the same time as Reuters is reporting the the DJ board is meeting with Ron Burkle to try to seek out other suitors…. Read the article from The Business here.  Read the Reuters article here.

I believe it. What other party (interested or not) in the world has the right mix of assets, plans, schemes, and personal ambitions (not to mention money) to want to buy DJ–at $60/share. Only Rupert Murdoch can legitimately afford to pay that price. In fact, for what he has in store, $60/share is a pretty good deal. When Murdoch gets a hold of The Wall Street Journal and other assets of DJ, he is going to leverage the content worldwide through his massive media network, the keystone of the plan being to launch a new financial news network to rival CNBC. What’s Ron Burkle’s rationale for paying a 67% premium on the DJ share price (as of the announcement of the $5 billion Murdoch bid)?

The media world is just going to have to get used to a Murdoch-owned Journal–with all the peril to editorial integrity and quality journalism that entails.