by Tatiana Repkova

U.S. financial publisher Dow Jones is poised to buy the London-based investment banking newspaper Financial News for about £27 million.

It is understood Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, is in advanced negotiations to acquire Financial News. A deal could be announced within days. Financial News is published in print every week and has its own real-time financial Web siteWeb site with around 40,000 subscribers. It is widely read in the City of London, and has a strong following among Europe's top investment bankers and investors.

The newspaper was founded by journalists, including The Mail on Sunday's former City editor Clive Wolman, and Peter Wilson-Smith, a former business correspondent for The Times, as London Financial News in the 1990s. The sale of Financial News, which is being handled by NM Rothschild, is likely to net some of the founders, who are still shareholders, a significant amount of cash. It is believed entrepreneur Angus Macdonald, Financial News's chief executive, who owns around 25 percent of the company, will step down from his current role but will remain as an adviser.

Last year eFinancialGroup, a sister company to Financial News, sold its jobs Web siteWeb site eFinancialCareers.com to U.S.-based online recruitment group Dice, which is owned by venture capitalists General Atlantic Partners and Quadrangle, for £48m. Dow Jones and Financial News could not be reached for comment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/04/10/cndow1... April 11, 2007